The Borgia Betrayal: A Novel (44 page)
Read The Borgia Betrayal: A Novel Online
Authors: Sara Poole
On the cusp of that hope, I rose and lit the lamp. As the first rays from it fell upon me, my heart lightened and I smiled.
THE BORGIA BETRAYAL
by Sara Poole
About the Author
•
A Conversation with Sara Poole
Behind the Novel
•
“The Hinge of History” An Original Essay by the Author
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ST. MARTIN’S GRIFFIN
A Conversation with Sara Poole
Could you tell us a little bit about your background, and when you decided that you wanted to lead a literary life?
I grew up in a family of journalists who were taken aback when, at the tender age of twelve, I announced my intent to write fiction. I immediately set about doing so and have never stopped. Along the way, I’ve worked in advertising, public relations, and publishing, but fiction has always been my lodestone drawing me home. I can’t imagine a life without it.
Is there a book that most influenced your life? Or inspired you to become a writer?
As a child, I read everything from Lewis Carroll to comic books (
Little Lulu
stands out in particular). I loved it all indiscriminately and gobbled up anything that fell into my hands. Somewhere along the way, I encountered Jean Plaidy in one or more of her various incarnations and became hooked on historical fiction.
What was the inspiration for
The Borgia Betrayal
and its heroine, Francesca?
Several years ago, I became interested in the wild plants on my doorstep that in one form or another are poisonous. One evening, I mentioned this to my family at dinner, setting off a round of teasing about what I’d put in the food. Two words popped into my head:
woman poisoner
. In the strange way of such things, Francesca appeared shortly thereafter, virtually fully formed. I’ve had to run to keep up with her ever since.
“Fiction has
always been
my lodestone
drawing
me home.”
The Borgia Betrayal
is your second book featuring Francesca. How many books do you plan to include in the series? And how do you plot Francesca’s growth in each book?
I know where and how Francesca’s story ends, and I have a fair idea of how she gets to that point from the moment when we first meet her as a young, desperate woman about to enter the employ of
la famiglia
Borgia. I have a timeline of many of the important events in her life that also tracks her development as a character. Fascinating me as she does, I can easily foresee a dozen books following this mistress of the dark as she strives to bring light into her own life and her world.
How much of the writing you did for book one was based on your intention to write a sequel? How did knowing this was a series affect your writing of the first book,
Poison
?
In the beginning, I assumed that I was writing a single book. As a rough framework, I thought it would cover the eleven years from shortly before Rodrigo Borgia’s election as Pope Alexander VI in the summer of 1492 to his death eleven years later in 1503. I’d written about thirty thousand words when I realized I was on day four. About then I decided I was writing a series. Writing a series is significantly different from writing a single novel. Knowing that I don’t have to try to cram a sprawling, multifaceted story into one book allows me to concentrate on short, intense periods of a few weeks or a few months in which conflict—both internal and external—compels my characters to adapt and change.
Were you surprised at all by how your characters grew from
Poison
to
The Borgia Betrayal
?
Francesca surprised me a great deal. I didn’t anticipate the lengths she would go to in order to do what she regards as her duty. In this book, she takes a desperate risk that illuminates her precarious mental state but which I think also makes her realize how much she values her own life. That discovery will turn out to be very important in the third book.
Your books are part of a series, but do you think readers who are new to them necessarily need to read the books in order?
Each of the books is a standalone work. While some readers may prefer to read them in order, they definitely don’t need to be read that way. In fact, I think it would be interesting to pick up one of the later books, discover Francesca, and then go back and explore earlier events in her life.
What can readers expect from the third novel in the series? We don’t want any spoilers, of course, but can you say anything about what lies ahead for your characters?
In the third book, something truly terrible happens to Francesca. This woman who believes that all that is worthwhile in life happens within the city limits of Rome is forced to endure an extended stay in the countryside. On a more serious note, Francesca will make a shattering discovery about her own past when she meets an adversary who plunges her into a nightmare confrontation with her deepest fears. From this, she will emerge as the woman she must be if she is to survive the deadly danger and conflict that is about to tear her world apart.
“I can easily
foresee a
dozen books
following
[Francesca].”
Historical Timeline
March 4, 1493
La Niña,
the flagship of Christopher Columbus, limps out of a fierce Atlantic storm bringing word of the discovery of vast new lands to the west.
Spring, 1493
Intent on increasing the wealth and power of his family, Rodrigo Borgia, Pope Alexander VI, seizes lands previously belonging to the Kingdom of Naples and grants them to his second son, Juan, newly created Duke of Gandia.
Ferdinand I, King of Naples, warns of war if his rights are not respected by the papacy.
Rumors spread that the Pope plans to make his first son, seventeen-year-old Cesare Borgia, a cardinal, laying the foundation for a dynasty of Borgia popes that will rule all of Christendom.
Fear of Borgia’s intentions increases opposition to his papacy among many of the great families of Italy as well as the prelates of the Roman Catholic Church.
From his base in Florence, the fanatical Dominican friar Girolamo Savonarola preaches against the corruption of the Roman Catholic Church and the rule of Pope Alexander VI.
April 25, 1493
In answer to challenges to his papacy from the Kingdom of Naples and other opponents, Pope Alexander VI formally begins preparations for war. Borgia’s great rival for the papacy, Cardinal della Rovere, withdraws to his bishopric at Ostia and begins fortifying it.
May 4, 1493
Rodrigo Borgia, Pope Alexander VI, signs the papal bull
Inter Caetera,
granting all the newly discovered lands a hundred leagues west of the Azores to Spain. In doing so, he seeks to buy the support of Their Most Catholic Majesties, Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand, against his enemies.
Mid-May, 1493
Cardinal della Rovere withdraws to his family seat at Savona. He enters negotiations with the French king, Charles VIII, with the intention of overthrowing Pope Alexander VI.
June, 1493
The Spanish emissary Don Diego Lopez de Haro arrives in Rome, bringing more demands from Their Most Catholic Majesties in return for Spain’s support of Borgia.
June 12, 1493
In fulfillment of his pledge to the Sforza family of Milan, by which he secured their support for his papacy, Rodrigo Borgia marries his thirteen-year-old daughter, Lucrezia, to Giovanni Sforza. The marriage signifies a hardening of positions and makes war all but inevitable.
Rodrigo Borgia
Lucrezia Borgia
An Original Essay
The Hinge of History
The Borgia Betrayal
begins at a moment when Europe dangles in the grip of stunning news. That crazy fellow, Christopher Columbus, who deluded himself into believing that he could reach the Indies by sailing west, didn’t die at sea as every right-thinking person was certain that he would. He’s back and he’s claiming to have succeeded. Moreover, he’s brought proof in the form of exotic people, plants, and animals unlike any ever seen before.
For a civilization exhausted by centuries of war, famine, and plague, in which oppression rules and the tentative rebirth of learning risks being smothered in its cradle, no news has ever been more exhilarating or more challenging. The moment the battered caravel
La Niña
limps out of an Atlantic storm into the port of Lisbon on March 4, 1493, everything changes.
Columbus’s return sets off a series of rapid-fire events as everyone from merchants to monarchs and the Pope himself—Rodrigo Borgia, Pope Alexander VI—struggles to determine how to exploit whatever it is that has just happened. But beyond that, it inspires people from all walks of life to think of possibilities that have never occurred to them before. Within thirty years of Columbus’s return from his first voyage, dozens of European explorers will remake the map of the world. For the first time in history, the Spanish scholar Juan los Vives will be able to report accurately: “The whole globe is opened up to the human race.” The end of isolation will have a devastating effect on indigenous people, but it will also propel humanity into the modern era.
“Within
years of
Columbus’s
return … the
‘whole globe
is opened
up to the
human race.’”
Caught at this moment as the hinge of history swings wide and the door opens on a new age, we see the Borgias, their world, and their poisoner, Francesca Giordano, enmeshed in the challenges of their daily lives yet aware that just beyond, vast, transformative forces are at work. Like us, they struggle to ride the wind carrying them toward a destination both alluring and unknowable.
