Krishna
This is a book which demonstrates how a book should not be written. It follows the life of an illegitimate daughter of a lascivious and power hungry pope and contains nuggets on both life in the sixteenth century Italy (divided into multiple kingdoms) and the absolute power wielded by Popes whose character you will not even being to accept in any occupant of the Papal office.
In fifteenth century, Italy was really multiple ‘states’. Milan was ruled by Sforza family. Venice was a merchant empire ruled by an oligopoly. Florence was under the control of the Medici. Finally the Papal states under the control of the Pope. Some of the smaller parts of these owed allegiance to foreign powers, namely France and Spain.
In 1492, our heroine Lucrezia’s father was elected Pope Alexander VI (His birth name is Rodrigo Borgia and Lucrezia was his illegitimate daughter by a mistress). Peace was kept by the Italian League, an alliance between Naples and Milan. With Lorenzo dying in 1492, the unity was split apart with Milan and Naples quarreling and other troubles.
We learn that the Popes were at the height of their powers then, having seen to inherit the spiritual authority of St Peter and the earthly power of Emperor Constantine.
Rodrigo Borgia was an attractive man and licentious before and after he became Pope Alexander. He fathered eight or nine children but his greatest love was Vannoza Cattanei. She was married to two husbands during that time (sequentially of course) and gave Robert three children – Cisare, Juan and Lucrezia. She seems to have been grasping and greedy and made the most of her influence with the Pope, amassing properties. But she seems to have taken no personal interest in the children.
Lucrezia herself was twelve when Rodrigo became the Pope. Roberto’s first cousin looked after Lucrezia while encouraging Roberto’s liaison with her own daughter in law, the beautiful Giulia, nicknamed ‘Giulia la Bella’!
Lucrezia was very close to both her father and her elder brother Cesare and there were innuendos of incest with both of them. However, author Sarah Bradford informs us that sexual innuendos were a common practice in the fifteenth century Italy and anyway ‘Cesare’s contemporary, Gian Paolo Baglioni openly received ambassadors while lying in bed with his sister.’
It is interesting that the family considered themselves Catalan (from one of their parents) and survived in Italy by surrounding themselves with Catalan people serving in high positions.
The one problem with the story is the dry, pedantic style descriptions of the events. Even the plotting of Alexander to elevate his family, his betrothal of both his illegitimate daughter and son to influential families to gain advantage not just for them but also primarily for him are all told in a droll style, making it hard to keep your interest up in this interesting period of papal history. This is one of those books where the teaser for the story (on the covers of the book) is a lot better sounding than the actual story itself!
And also the story is not much that needs recounting. Alexander continuously maneuvers to get his kids, including his illegitimate children, into positions of power in Italy and Spain. He also seems to have had continuous affairs with not just mistresses but wives of other nobles – so much for the celibacy of pope. He is petulant, irritated, very conscious of his power and imagined slights to it. At the same time he seems to have loved his three children from Vannoza, including Lucrezia. If you assumed an austere, religious, and dignified pope, he is the very antithesis of such a figure!
There is a whole lot of dry political maneuvering, which is both confusing and boring. If you understood that the Pope was sex crazed, irreligious and very power hungry, plotting to increase his wealth and place his relatives, including his illegitimate children in positions of authority, even if it angered everyone else, you get the gist of the story.
In this chaos, we see Cesare, son of Alexander and brother of Lucrezia, gaining titles and importance and growing more and more cruel and authoritarian. The Pope shamelessly advancing the careers of his illegitimate children in the church hierarchy itself, no less, and letting them hold more and more ostentatious displays of wealth in main events and dinners.
Married to Alfonso, Lucrezia was very happy but Alfonso was not the flavour of the day for the Pope anymore. Pope narrowly survived death when the roof fell on the people in the Vatican room where the Pope was also present. He was seventy one.
Soon after ‘persons unknown’ attacked and grievously wounded Alfonso. When he recovered, Cesare sent his own ‘executioner’ to finish the job, right in the room where he was housed by Lucrezia. This ruthless act of killing his own brother in law whom his sister loved, was done for political gain and ensuring that the Pope’s loyalties did not shift from his faction.
The lengths the Pope goes to force Lucrezia to nobility – even putting pressure on the King of France, who needs his help – is amazing.
We also learn that when the wife is in mourning, she eats from earthenware vessels for the duration of mourning!
Also mentioned are some orgies with courtesans and prizes for the person who had been able to perform the highest number of times with the courtesans in which not just Cesare the Duke, but also the Pope and Lucrezia were ‘present’. Equally shocking is the fact that the Pope and Lucrezia enormously enjoyed the fight of stallions to get to a limited number of mares for subsequent coupling! The scrutiny on powerful figures seems to have been lax in those times. Imagine even a whiff of this stuff coming out in the current ‘fishbowl’ world of well known leaders in this social media and ubiquitous cellphone world!
And the progress through the story is tedious, to say the least. Every feast and each of the lavish gifts are painfully described; each item on the elaborate dress of Lucrezia on every occasion is described in detail. Every stop on her way from Rome to her new husband’s place and all the reception she received in described in painful detail, apparently in total fascination and delight by the author. An already normal story is rendered extremely painful because of these details that do nothing to aid the flow of the story. So, we get it a long time ago : she is influential, clever, beautiful and rich. Time to move on, is it not? And every ingredient in the poultice that Lucrezia made to wash her hair! (Sounds more like the diary of her housemaid than a story, for God’s sake!)
A whole lot of plotting and exposure and punishment; all within Lucrezia’s husband’s family. It reads like a whole lot of inconsequential actions within a family. When Alexander died, another Pope was chosen and took the name of Julius. He was not favourable to the Borgia family and so they seem to have lost their clout.
Cesare lost all his possessions and was also imprisoned by the King, and nothing that Lucrecia tried seemed to work to release him.
And it goes on in this vein, each letter quoted in detail – often empty pleas – and even more infuriatingly, all the gifts given and received by Lucretia described in excruciatingly boring detail. On the whole the story is one of Papal extravagance – often shockingly sexual extravagance, widespread existence of syphilis, and petty quarrels fueled by jealousy.
We learn one or two things : Louis XII the French king who took the side of Alfonso (and Lucrecia) against papal forces dies and we learn that when he was fifty three and in failing health and he married the sister of England’s King Henry VIII; the girl was only 19. He died soon after due to, according to rumours, ‘excessive indulgence in sex’.
This could have been so much more. However, till the end, the author proceeds in this vein so that the whole story reads like you are reading some official records kept in the sixteenth century! It is interesting that Martin Luther started his famous protest (Reformation) when Lucrezia was alive!
I tried to like this book, but failed.
2/10
— Krishna