THOMAS EGERTON
BOULAY DE LA MEURTHE, JOSEPH BRACKLEY
BOULDER (Colorado, U.S.A.) BRACQUEMOND, FELIX
BOULDER (large stone) BRACTON, HENRY DE
BOULDER CLAY BRADAWL
BOULE BRADDOCK, EDWARD
BOULEVARD BRADDOCK
BOULLE, ANDRE CHARLES BRADDON, MARY ELIZABETH
BOULOGNE BRADFORD, JOHN
BOULOGNE-SUR-MER

BORGIA, LUCREZIA (1480-1519), duchess of Ferrara, daughter of Cardinal
Rodrigo Borgia, afterwards Pope Alexander VI. (q.v.), by his mistress
Vanozza dei Cattanei, was born at Rome in 1480. Her early years were
spent at her mother's house near her father's splendid palace; but later
she was given over to the care of Adriana de Mila, a relation of
Cardinal Borgia and mother-in-law of Giulia Farnese, another of his
mistresses. Lucrezia was educated according to the usual curriculum of
Renaissance ladies of rank, and was taught languages, music, embroidery,
painting, &c.; she was famed for her beauty and charm, but the corrupt
court of Rome in which she was brought up was not conducive to a good
moral education. Her father at first contemplated a Spanish marriage for
her, and at the age of eleven she was betrothed to Don Cherubin de
Centelles, a Spanish nobleman. But the engagement was broken off almost
immediately, and Lucrezia was married by proxy to another Spaniard, Don
Gasparo de Procida, son of the count of Aversa. On the death of Innocent
VIII. (1492), Cardinal Borgia was elected pope as Alexander VI., and,
contemplating a yet more ambitious marriage for his daughter, he
annulled the union with Procida; in February 1493 Lucrezia was betrothed
to Giovanni Sforza, lord of Pesaro, with whose family Alexander was now
in close alliance. The wedding was celebrated in June; but when the
pope's policy changed and he became friendly to the king of Naples, the
enemy of the house of Sforza, he planned the subjugation of the vassal
lords of Romagna, and Giovanni, feeling his position insecure, left Rome
for Pesaro with his wife. By Christmas 1495 they were back in Rome; the
pope had all his children around him, and celebrated the carnival with a
series of magnificent festivities. But he decided that he had done with
Sforza, and annulled the marriage on the ground of the husband's
impotence (March 1497). In order to cement his alliance with Naples, he
married Lucrezia to Alphonso of Aragon, duke