Editing Lucrezia Borgia (section)

===Third marriage: Alfonso d'Este (Duke of Ferrara)===
[[File:Battista Dossi, ritratto di Alfonso I d'Este - Modena.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Alfonso d'Este]]
After the death of Lucrezia's second husband, her father, Pope Alexander VI, arranged a third marriage. Then, she married [[Alfonso I d'Este]], [[Duke of Ferrara]], in early 1502 in [[Ferrara]]. She had eight children, during this marriage, and was considered a respectable and accomplished Renaissance duchess, effectively rising above her previous reputation and surviving the fall of the Borgias, following her father's death.<ref>[[Roberto Gervaso]], ''I Borgia'', Milano, Rizzoli, 1977, p. 362, pp. 375–380.</ref>

Neither partner was faithful: beginning in 1503, Lucrezia enjoyed a long relationship with her brother-in-law, [[Francesco II Gonzaga, Marquess of Mantua]].<ref>''Lucrezia Borgia: Life, Love and Death in Renaissance Italy'', Sarah Bradford, Viking, 2004</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://observer.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,6903,1334580,00.html|title=Observer review: Lucrezia Borgia by Sarah Bradford|author=David Jays|work=The Guardian|date=24 October 2004|access-date=22 January 2015}}</ref> Francesco's wife was the cultured intellectual [[Isabella d'Este]], the sister of Alfonso, to whom Lucrezia had made overtures of friendship, to no avail. The affair between Francesco and Lucrezia was passionate, more sexual than sentimental, as can be attested in the fevered love letters the pair wrote one another.<ref>Marek, pp.166–67</ref> It has been claimed that the affair ended, when Francesco contracted [[syphilis]] and had to end sexual relations with Lucrezia.<ref>Marek (1976) p. 169</ref> This last assertion is troublesome, as Francesco had contracted [[syphilis]] before 1500, as it was known that he passed the disease onto his eldest son, [[Federico II Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua|Federico Gonzaga]], who was born in 1500. Francesco did not meet Lucrezia until 1502.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Isabella d'Este and Francesco Gonzaga : power sharing at the Italian Renaissance Court|last=P.|first=Cockram, Sarah D.|date=2013|publisher=Ashgate Publishing Ltd|isbn=9781409448310|location=Farnham|oclc=855504802}}</ref>

Lucrezia also had a love affair with the poet [[Pietro Bembo]], during her third marriage. Their love letters were deemed "the prettiest love letters in the world" by the [[Romanticism|Romantic]] poet [[Lord Byron]], when he saw them in the [[Biblioteca Ambrosiana|Ambrosian Library]] of [[Milan]] on 15 October 1816.<ref name=Spectator>''[https://www.spectator.co.uk/2005/06/viragos-on-the-march Viragos on the march]'', ''[[The Spectator]]'', 25 June 2005, by Ian Thomson, a review of ''Viragos on the march'' by Gaia Servadio. I. B. Tauris, {{ISBN|1-85043-421-2}}.</ref><ref name=Caxtonian>[http://www.caxtonclub.org/reading/2005/oct05.pdf ''Pietro Bembo: A Renaissance Courtier Who Had His Cake and Ate It Too''], Ed Quattrocchi, ''Caxtonian: Journal of the Caxton Club of Chicago'', Volume XIII, No. 10, October 2005.</ref> On the same occasion, Byron claimed to have stolen a lock of Lucrezia's hair – "the prettiest and fairest imaginable"<ref name=Caxtonian /> – that was also held there on display.<ref name="Byron Chrono">[http://www.rc.umd.edu/reference/chronologies/byronchronology/1816.html The Byron Chronology: 1816–1819 – Separation and Exile on the Continent] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190223124538/http://www.rc.umd.edu/reference/chronologies/byronchronology/1816.html |date=23 February 2019 }}.</ref><ref name=Nichol>[https://www.fulltextarchive.com/page/Byron2/#p72 ''Byron''] by [[John Nichol (biographer)|John Nichol]].</ref><ref name="Byron Letter">Letter to [[Augusta Leigh]], Milan, 15 October 1816. ''Lord Byron's Letters and Journals'', [http://engphil.astate.edu/gallery/byron6.html Chapter 5: Separation and Exile] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080509081118/http://engphil.astate.edu/gallery/byron6.html |date=9 May 2008 }}.</ref>
[[File:Veneto - Portrait of an Unidentified Young Lady - National Gallery.jpg|thumb|upright|Possible portrait by [[Bartolomeo Veneziano]] (c. 1510)<ref>{{cite book|last=Bellonci|first=Maria|title=Lucrezia Borgia|year=2003|publisher=Mondadori|location=Milan|isbn=978-88-04-45101-3|page=613}}</ref>]]
Lucrezia met the famed French soldier, the [[Pierre Terrail, seigneur de Bayard|Chevalier Bayard]], while the latter was co-commanding the French allied garrison of Ferrara, in 1510. According to his biographer, the Chevalier became a great admirer of Lucrezia's, considering her a "pearl on this Earth".<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Chevalier Bayard|last=Shellabarger|first=Samuel|author-link=Samuel Shellabarger|publisher=eNet Press|year=1971|pages=165}}</ref>

After a long history of complicated pregnancies and miscarriages, on 14 June 1519, Lucrezia gave birth to her tenth child, which she named Isabella Maria, in honor of Alfonso's sister, [[Isabella d'Este]]. The child was sickly, and fearing she would die unbaptised, Alfonso ordered her to be baptized, immediately, with Eleonora [[Duchy of Mirandola|Pico della Mirandola]] and Count Alexandro Serafino as godparents.

Lucrezia had become very weak, during the pregnancy, and fell seriously ill, after the birth. After seeming to recover for two days, she worsened, again, and died on 24 June of the same year. She was buried in the convent of [[Corpus Domini, Ferrara|Corpus Domini]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.comune.fe.it/lucrezia/index_ing.htm|title=Ferrara 2002 Anno di Lucrezia Borgia|publisher=Comune di Ferrara|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090616102541/http://www.comune.fe.it/lucrezia/index_ing.htm|archive-date=16 June 2009}}</ref>