Ángela Borgia and the disputes of the Este
An unfortunate comment produced unexpected consequences.
One of the people who accompanies Lucrezia to the Ferrara court is her cousin Ángela Borja. A woman of great beauty that causes one of the best known disputes between the Este.
Her charms made an impression on the court, putting the Duchess's two brothers-in-law, brothers of her husband Alfonso, at the center of attention: the womanizer Cardinal Ippolito and his brother Giulio, famous for his bearing and good looks.
One day, Ángela, courted by Ippolito, made a comment about his brother Giulio's beautiful eyes. Enraged and jealous, he ordered assassins to gouge out the eyes that Ángela so greatly prized.
They kidnapped Giulio and, in the presence of the cardinal, executed the order. The doctors were able to save one eye. The deed caused great commotion in the Court and the cardinal was temporarily banished.
Giulio, burning with revenge, allied himself with his other brother, Ferrante, to replace Alfonso, Lucrezia's husband, as Duke of Ferrara. The conspiracy was discovered and the accomplices were beheaded and quartered in the main square.
The two brothers were to be hanged in the castle courtyard on August 12, 1506, but Alfonso pardoned them and sentenced them to life imprisonment in the castle dungeons.
In 1559 Ercole II died, and his son Alfonso II, who was to be the last Duke of Ferrara, decided to free his great-uncle, the octogenarian Giulio, who had been imprisoned for 53 years. Ferrante had died in his cell in 1540.
