alternatehistory.com

Lucrezia Borgia, only daughter and likely the most beloved child, of Pope Alexander VI by his mistress Vannozza Cattanei (who is not the infamous “Lady of Rome” or “Bride of Christ” of Alexander VI’s papacy. That was Giulia Farnese, sister of the future Pope Paul III, who became Alexander’s mistress in 1488 when she was only 14 years old) was married at 15 years old to the 14 years old Alfonso of Aragon, Duke of Bisceglie and Prince of Salerno, who was the illegimate son of Alfonso II of Naples, sealing the friendship and alliance between their fathers. Lucrezia had the luck of being married to a powerful lord in a beautiful court who remained stable and almost unchallenged, so she was able to spend a peaceful life and both her surviving children made very good weddings as her son Alessandro married a legitimate member of the royal family of Naples (Isabella of Taranto, the youngest daughter of Federico, Duke of Taranto and Andria, second son of King Ferrante I) while her daughter, another Lucrezia, was the third princess of Naples (and the second Borgia, after her cousin Maddalena, third wife of Alfonso I) to marry in Ferrara (the other two were Eleonora of Naples, elder daughter of King Ferrante I and only wife of Duke Ercole I, then Charlotte of Taranto, only child of Federico by his first wife, who was the second wife of Alfonso I and mother of his heir, who in turn married Lucrezia of Bisceglie). This Lucrezia Borgia was remembered for her beauty and culture but specially for her piety and the great love between her and her husband, and also as sometime hostess for her father, as Lucrezia and Alfonso were used to divide their times between the courts of Rome and Naples and their own lands.
Sometimes she is called Lucrezia Borgia ”the Elder” for better distinguishing her from her namesake niece Lucrezia Borgia “the Younger”, who was the youngest daughter of Cesare and Maddalena Borgia and likewise married in the extended royal family of Naples as her husband was Ferrante of Aragon, Prince of Taranto and Duke of Andria (brother of Alessandro of Bisceglie‘s wife Isabella).




*as the alliance with Rome and Milan prevented the French Kings Charles VIII and Louis XII from effectively trying to claim the crown of Naples and while Ferdinand II of Aragon once tried to invade Naples (in the short timeframe in which neither his sister or her daughter were Queen Consorts in Naples), killing King Alfonso II in battle, his invasion in the end was unsuccessful and the later wedding between his niece Giovanna to the new King Ferdinand II, after Queen Bianca Maria‘s death, put the end on that once for all.