court records of Valencia.
September 27, 1497, Dona Maria Enriquez appeared before the tribunal of
the governor of the kingdom of Valencia, Don Luis de Cabaineles, and
claimed the estate, including the duchy of Gandia and the Neapolitan
fiefs of Suessa, Teano, Carinola, and Montefoscolo, for Don Giovanni's
eldest son, a child of three years. The duke's death was proved by legal
documents, among which was this letter written by Alexander, and the
tribunal accordingly recognized Gandia's son as his legal heir.[52]

Dona Maria also claimed her husband's personal property in his house in
Rome, which was valued at thirty thousand ducats, and which on the death
of Don Giovanni, had been transferred by Alexander VI, to the
fratricide Caesar to administer for his nephew, as appears from an
official document of the Roman notary Beneimbene, dated December 19,
1498.

At this time Lucretia was not in her palace in the Vatican. June 4th she
had gone to the convent of S. Sisto on the Appian Way, thereby causing a
great sensation in Rome. Her flight doubtless was in some way connected
with the forced annulment of her marriage. While her father himself may
not have banished her to S. Sisto, she, probably excited by Pesaro's
departure, and perhaps angry with the Pope, had doubtless sought this
place as an asylum. That she was angry with him is shown by a letter
written by Donato Aretino from Rome, June 19th, to Cardinal Ippolito
d'Este: "Madonna Lucretia has left the palace _insalutato hospite_ and
gone to a convent known as that of S. Sisto; where she now is. Some say
she will turn nun, while others make different statements which I can
not entrust to a letter."[53]

We know not what prayers and what confessions Lucretia made at the
altar, but this was one of the most momentous periods of her life. While
in the convent she learned of the terrible death of one of her brothers,
and shuddered at the crime of the other. For she, like her father and
all the Borgias, firmly believed that Caesar was a fratricide. She
clearly discerned the marks of his inordinate ambition; she knew that he
was planning to lay aside the cardinal's robe and become a secular
prince; she must have known too that they were scheming in the Vatican
to make Don Giuffre a cardinal in Caesar's place and to marry the latter
to the former's wife, Donna Sancia, with whom, it was generally known,
he was on most intimate terms.

Alexander commanded Giuffre and his young