Paolo (1474-1495) was a stable boy in the service of Giovanni Sforza. He was a lover of Lucrezia Borgia during her marriage to Sforza, and he was murdered by her brother Juan Borgia the Younger because of his status as a commoner.
Biography[]
Paolo was born in Pesaro in 1474, and he served the House of Sforza as a stable boy. In 1495, he fell in love with Lucrezia Borgia, the unhappy and abused wife of his lord, Giovanni Sforza. The young and innocent Borgia came to love Paolo, a good-hearted man, despite his illiteracy and his status as a commoner. The two began a secret affair, and he fathered a child with her, Giovanni Borgia. Their affair was brought to an end when Giulia Farnese, the mistress of Borgia's father Pope Alexander VI, arrived to pick up Borgia from Pesaro; she threatened to harm Paolo if he spoke of their affair. Paolo prepared two horses for them to leave at dawn, and Sforza whipped him in retaliation.
Murder[]
Paolo after being hanged
However, Paolo still loved Lucrezia, and he travelled to Rome to meet her once more. He met a prostitute named Beatrice, who took him to the Vatican; there, he met Lucrezia at a fountain as she wished for him to return to her, only for her brother Juan Borgia the Younger to threaten to kill him. Lucrezia pretended not to know him, and she told him to say a prayer by the same fountain at midnight, and then to pray at the nearby church. Paolo met her there, and he met his son at the house of Vannozza dei Cattanei, Lucrezia's mother. Cesare Borgia allowed for him to stay with his sister and to make love to her one last time before leaving; Cesare appreciated that her sister loved him. However, Juan Borgia hired Beatrice to spy on Paolo, and she tracked him down to Cattanei's home. Cesare's assassin Micheletto Corella strangled Beatrice after discovering that she was spying for Juan Borgia, but it was too late for Paolo. As Paolo left Rome to return to Pesaro, he was grabbed by Borgia and told that he was about to "commit suicide"; Borgia had him hanged. He left a fake suicide note on his body, and Lucrezia Borgia knew that he did not kill himself, as he could not read or write; he could not even write his own name. She decided to take her revenge on Juan by making him paranoid, including dropping a chandelier on him and a lover of his as they made love.