Can you tell? But I have also read a little history of the Borgias and find them fascinating.ĭisplays are my downfall. She is becomes close to Giulia, the wife of Adrianna's son, who becomes Roderigo's mistress.Īnyway, this book is about plot, plot, and plot. Only Lucrezia is happy as a young girl transferred to the household of Adrianna, a sophisticated woman with whom Roderigo sends the children to live. Cesare, who becomes an archbishop, hates the church, and Giovanni wants to live in Rome. When Roderigo ambitiously decides their futures for them for political reasons-Cesare must go into the church, Giovanni take the place of a much older brother in Spain who dies, a duke-the boys are unhappy. Even when she is a toddler, they tell her quite a lot she doesn't need to know. Lucrezia is sweet, but they slowly corrupt her. The two boys hate each other, are violent, and grow up to be promiscuous and cruel. In the novel, there is much scheming and conspiring, and he buys the conclave votes.īut Plaidy's tale of decadence really begins with the rivalry of Cesare and Giovanni Borgia's rivalry for their younger sister Lucrezia's attention. On the death of Pope Innocent VIII, he was elected Pope Alexander VI.
Roderigo, in case you didn't know, was Spanish-born and aspired to be pope. Fortunately he is thrilled with his golden-haired daughter and comes often to visit her and his young sons, Cesare and Giovanni. Vannozza, the mistress of Cardinal Roderigo Borgia, age 38 when Lucrezia is born, is uncertain whether Roderigo, a womanizer, will hang around much longer.
This well-written, enjoyable pop novel begins with the heroine Lucrezia's birth. (You may know Plaidy as Victoria Holt: her real name was Eleanor Hibberd and she wrote under several pseudonyms.) I am enthralled by Madonna of the Seven Hills, perhaps because I'm a Plaidy addict. Plaidy, one of the most popular English historical novelists of the '50s and '60s, wrote two novels about Lucrezia Borgia.
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