- "I will not be beaten, Djem."
- ―Lucrezia Borgia
Lucrezia Borgia is a main character in the first, second and third seasons. She is portrayed by Holliday Grainger, and makes her debut in the series premiere.
Lucrezia is the third child and only daughter of Rodrigo Borgia and Vanozza Cattaneo. She is the sister of Cesare Borgia, Juan Borgia and Joffre Borgia, and the mother of Giovanni Borgia. She was married to Giovanni Sforza, but after his family denied the Borgia family their military powers during Charles VIII invasion of Rome, Lucrezia's father had the marriage annulled. Lucrezia had an affair with a stable boy named Paolo during her first marriage, and got pregnant with a son she named Giovanni Borgia.
Information[]
Season one[]
A beautiful young girl who is also wise beyond her years, Lucrezia is the apple of her father's eye. However, this does not prevent him from marrying her off at the earliest opportunity to Giovanni Sforza, a loutish brute whose family rules the powerful city-state of Milan. After becoming pregnant from an amorous affair with the Sforza stable boy, Paolo, Lucrezia flees home to Rome and convinces her father to annul the marriage and publicly humiliate Sforza.[2]
Season two[]
After a disastrous arranged marriage ended in annulment, scandal, and an illegitimate son fathered by a stable boy, Lucrezia is determined to have control over her own destiny, much to her father's dismay. She rejects suitor after suitor, but finally settles on Alfonso of Aragon (with her father's approval).[3]
Relationship with Cesare Borgia[]
Cesare Borgia[]
Cesare is Lucrezia's older brother. They are extremely close, and have a strong bond. Cesare takes care of his sister, and just wants to make her happy. It is shown that their intimacy in tow with their friendship is their tiny corner of happiness, away from the violence and corruption all around them.
In season one, they have a close and tender relationship with one another.
Cesare fights his father for the happiness of Lucrezia, who is to be married to the brutal Giovanni Sforza. The young girl is indeed raped by her husband. Cesare becomes suspicious of Sforza. When Lucrezia became pregnant (the father of her child is her lover, a stableboy, Paolo), she trusts Cesare who hides her in a nunnery to annul her marriage.
In season 2, brother and sister grew up and both lost their innocence. Cesare offers to his sister, the possibility of meeting the father of her child, Paolo. After his death, Cesare takes care of his sister and her child, and killed Giovanni Sforza, as promised to Lucrezia in season 1.
At the end of season 2, Cesare must make a choice: indeed, his brother, Juan, became a danger to the family, especially for Lucrezia and her baby. Yet Rodrigo asks Cesare to protect his brother and put it in the right way. After Juan had tried to kill the baby of his sister, Cesare decided to kill him, to ensure the safety of Lucrezia.
In season 3, their relationship changes. The relationship of brother and sister becomes more romantic and sensual. In episode 2, "The Purge", they exchange a brief kiss while Lucrezia is naked on her bed. In episode 3, "Siblings" Lucrezia is abandoned by her second husband, Alfonso of Aragon, during their wedding night. While deciding not to repress the immense love she feels for her brother, she joins him in his room, where they make love.
"- Am I so hard to love?
- No, Lucrezia, you cannot.
- But I must. Only a Borgia, it Seems, can truly love a Borgia. Why deny the ourselves the pleasure, for which we're already accused?
- Your husband?
- You will be my husband... tonight ".[4]
After this episode, they crossed a barrier. In the next episode, Lucrezia is obliged to bed her husband Alfonso d'Aragona, before his uncle, for diplomatic reasons. After Cesare announces the news, Lucrezia is furious and brother and sister embrace painfully. In retaliation, Lucrezia chose Cesare as a witness to the act, to Cesare's despair.
Despite their efforts to resume a "normal" relationship (episodes 5, 7 and 8), Cesare and Lucrezia are more related than ever, and in love with each other. They meet for episode 9: After Lucrezia has fled Naples, Cesare had gone looking for her. They kiss passionately in the sight of Alfonso, Lucrezia's husband.
This one only dreams to kill Cesare. They clash briefly in episode 9.
The last episode, "The Prince", is crucial for the two incestuous lovers who express their feelings.
"- Why your touch is the only one that soothes me ... You spent a lifetime pulling away from me. I am tired of that. I am tired of my husband, I am tired of life. The only thing who never tires me is you.
Why? Why we are cursed by the feeling, that feels so... natural... and good ? Why when we are together God seems to sit in the room with us?
And when to you're away ... I manage to forget you. And one touch of you hand and God comes rushing back ...
- God or the Devil?
- Whatever it is, it overwhelmed "[5].
At the end of the episode, Cesare instigated the project to kill Alfonso. Lucrezia suspects it. At night, Cesare came to visit his sister, and he meets Alfonso. Alfonso defies him and accuses him of being in love with his own sister. Cesare and Alfonso clash, and Lucrezia's husband is mortally wounded.
Lucrezia is now desperate of being a Borgia. Her husband, in agony, begs her to kill him. Lucrezia seems administer poison.
The last scene of the series ends with the wish of Cesare. The brother, on top of his sister, who is lying next to her dead husband, touch her face.
"You will be clean, naked, and bloodless again. And mine ..."[6]
Appearances[]
| Season one appearances | ||||
| The Poisoned Chalice | The Assassin | The Moor | ||
| Lucrezia's Wedding | The Borgias in Love | The French King | ||
| Death, on a Pale Horse | The Art of War | Nessuno (Nobody) | ||
| Season two appearances | ||||
| The Borgia Bull | Paolo | The Beautiful Deception | Stray Dogs | The Choice |
| Day of Ashes | The Siege at Forli | Truth and Lies | World of Wonders | The Confession |
| Season three appearances | ||||
| The Face of Death | The Purge | Siblings | The Banquet of Chestnuts | The Wolf and the Lamb |
| Relics | Lucrezia's Gambit | Tears of Blood | The Gunpowder Plot | The Prince |
Gallery[]
Every photo of Lucrezia Borgia on this wiki can be seen here.
Family tree[]
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Deceased | (b. 1477/1478) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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References[]
- ↑ Rodrigo Borgia mentions in The Assassin which is set in 1492 that Lucrezia is 14 years old. This makes Lucrezia 22 or 23 years old in the episode Tears of Blood which is set in 1500.
- ↑ http://www.bravo.ca/Shows/Borgias/Characters
- ↑ http://www.sho.com/sho/the-borgias/cast/7428/lucrezia-borgia
- ↑ The Borgias, episode 3 "Siblings".
- ↑ The Borgias, episode 10, "The Prince".
- ↑ The Borgias, episode 10, "The Prince".