![]() ![]() She’s only 36 when Borgia drags her off to prison in Rome. ![]() This, of course, is not the end of the story. Machiavelli turns to negotiate peace, she marries a Medici, gives birth to the father of a future Tuscan Grand Duke, is widowed again, and finally loses her castle to Cesare Borgia. Then there is a steamy affair with a stable boy, a murder, and a bloody revenge. All this happens before she turns thirty. The cowardly husband is assassinated and all seems to be lost, but our pregnant superhero escapes her captors, takes up arms and captures the castle. She gives birth of her first child at fifteen.Īs her greedy self-serving husband’s health deteriorated, Caterina keeps providing heirs (six), but also takes over the governance of their dominions (Imola and Forlì). ![]() Then her father arranges for an engagement at age ten (consummated with the fiancée, aged 30) and marriage at age thirteen (blessed by the Pope). She is tutored in the classics, learns how to ride a horse and hunt, and masters the management skills of a great household. The story starts with a baby girl, Caterina Sforza, the illegitimate child of dissolute, but noble Milanese father and a drop-dead gorgeous mother. How do you create the perfect Renaissance superhero? Art historian, Elizabeth Lev, narrates the story in her fascinating book, The Tigress of Forlì. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |