Nikki K

Lucrezia Borgia was born at Subiaco on April 18th, 1480. Her mother was Vanozza dei Cattanei and her father Rodrigo Borgia, who was later known as Pope Alexander VI. She was married three times for her family's political advantage and had eight children. As Duchess of Ferrara, Lucrezia became a patron of the arts and an entrepreneur. She bought around 20,000ha of seemingly worthless swampland which she had drained and had henceforth used to grow grain, beans and flax. It is often suggested that Lucrezia and her brother Cesare may have had an incestuous relationship. Lucrezia died aged 39 in Ferrara on 24 June 1519 from complications after giving birth to a daughter. She was buried in the convent of Corpus Domini.

Sarah Bradford (2004), Monica Bellonci (2002) and Ferdinand Gregorovius (1875) have written the most popular biographies on Lucrezia Borgia. She also inspired many novels and was portrayed in many movies and television series based on her family's rise and fall. For instance most recently:


Holliday Grainger (born in 1988 in Didsbury, near Manchester) is an English actress primarily active in television. In May 2010, Grainger was named one of the 55 faces of the future in Nylon magazine's Young Hollywood Issue. In 2011, Grainger became a series regular on the Showtime television series "The Borgias", portraying Lucrezia Borgia. Lately, she also appeared in several films – "Jane Eyre" (2011), playing one of the Rivers sisters opposite Mia Wasikowska and Michael Fassbender, and "Bel Ami" (2011), alongside Christina Ricci and Uma Thurman. In June 2011, Grainger was cast as Estella in Mike Newell's film adaptation of "Great Expectations", opposite Jeremy Irvine and Helena Bonham Carter. She also has a small part in a 2012 screen adaptation of Leo Tolstoy's "Anna Karenina" starring Jude Law and Kiera Knightly.