Speaker 1: Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of I Heart Radio
Speaker 1: and Grim and Mild from Aaron Mankey listener discretion advised. Hi,
Speaker 1: this is Danish Swartz, the host of Noble Blood. Thank
Speaker 1: you so much for listening It just a quick bit
Speaker 1: of housekeeping before the episode. I wrote a book called Anatomy,
Speaker 1: a Love Story, which is about a young woman who
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Speaker 1: And if you like this podcast, I really think you'll
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Speaker 1: the best support that you could give a quick morning
Speaker 1: before this episode begins. It contains graphic depictions of violence
Speaker 1: and contains references to sexual violence, so if that makes
Speaker 1: you uncomfortable or might be triggering, this might be an
Speaker 1: episode to skip. It was fifine and in the early
Speaker 1: morning hours of the eleventh of September, the city of
Speaker 1: Rome was rioting. A massive, angry crowd gathered and grew
Speaker 1: as Romans rich and poor like pressed on towards a
Speaker 1: building known as Castel sant Angelo, a fortress and prison
Speaker 1: whose imposing form had stood in the city since the
Speaker 1: second century se Shoulder to shoulder, the rioters pushed their
Speaker 1: way on this dangerously hot day toward the bridge that
Speaker 1: led to the prison, where a platform had been erected
Speaker 1: out front for a set of executions which were to
Speaker 1: take place at dawn. Executions almost always drew crowds in
Speaker 1: pre modern Europe, their publicity and visibility a central part
Speaker 1: of many justice systems all over the continent. They were
Speaker 1: a morbid spectacle shore, but they were also understood as
Speaker 1: crime deterrence, and sometimes they even had a sort of
Speaker 1: ritual component, aiming to restore the moral balance of a
Speaker 1: community after a crime had been committed. An execution in
Speaker 1: this period needed witnesses to fulfill its intended purpose. People
Speaker 1: in this period were, of course, not nearly as uni
Speaker 1: formally pro execution as we might believe. Plenty of people
Speaker 1: had serious reservations about the moral rectitude of this kind
Speaker 1: of state violence. But it wasn't often that the crowds
Speaker 1: at public executions tried so actively or so fervently as
Speaker 1: the crowd did that morning in Rome to stop the
Speaker 1: event from taking place at all. In fact, there was
Speaker 1: one execution in particular that the crowd seemed to want
Speaker 1: to prevent more than any of the others. They were there,
Speaker 1: sweating and pushing and shouting for a woman named Beatrice
Speaker 1: chen Chi. Only twenty two years old. She had been convicted,
Speaker 1: along with her stepmother and her brothers, of the murder
Speaker 1: of her father, Francesco Cenchi. It had been an open
Speaker 1: and shut case, a brutal patricide, and a sloppy attempt
Speaker 1: at making it look like an accident, but the people
Speaker 1: of Rome were sympathetic. For years, whispers had abounded in
Speaker 1: the city, but this day they became shouts. Beatrice's father
Speaker 1: abused her. He was a tyrant, a danger to his
Speaker 1: family and a terror to everyone. Whatever fate he got,
Speaker 1: the crowd reasoned it was well deserved. In the year
Speaker 1: between the murder and the day of her execution, Beatrice
Speaker 1: had become a symbol of innocence pushed to the brink.
Speaker 1: Her story resonated with the people of Rome, who felt,
Speaker 1: despite her noble status, that her plight paralleled the triumph
Speaker 1: of a people over an oppressive noble regime. She would
Speaker 1: eventually become known as the Roman Virgin, her in a sense,
Speaker 1: forever baked into her moniker and her short life forever
Speaker 1: a symbol of popular resistance. But it wasn't just the
Speaker 1: rabble who wanted to see Beatrice spared. Cardinals and esteemed
Speaker 1: members of the nobility had begged Clement the Eighth, the
Speaker 1: pope and head of the Papal states of which Rome
Speaker 1: was the capital, to have mercy on the young woman
Speaker 1: and her co conspirators. But on the heels of several
Speaker 1: other scandals that involved nobles taking matters into their own hands,
Speaker 1: Clement decided that he needed to make an example, a
Speaker 1: show of strength that would keep the nobility in line.
Speaker 1: The Pope had made his choice, the Roman Virgin would
Speaker 1: have no reprieve. I'm Dani Schwartz, and this is noble blood.
Speaker 1: Although BEATRICEA is remembered rather singularly, she was in fact
Speaker 1: only one member of a rather large and rather troubled family.
Speaker 1: Born in fifteen seventy seven to Count Francesco Cenchi and
Speaker 1: Urcilia Santa Croce, Beatrice was the fifth of their twelve
Speaker 1: or thirteen children, seven of whom would survive infancy. Relatively
Speaker 1: little is known about Urcilia, who would die before Beatrice
Speaker 1: turned eight in fifteen eighty four. Much more, and much worse,
Speaker 1: is known about her father. Francesco. Francesco Cenci was the
Speaker 1: so called natural, that is to say, illicit son of
Speaker 1: Monseigneur Christophero Cenci, treasurer of the Apostolic Camera, which is
Speaker 1: basically a papal treasury, which papal fun fact interlude was
Speaker 1: just abolished by Pope Francis this year, shortly before his
Speaker 1: father's death. Francesco was legitimized, meaning he stood too then
Speaker 1: did at age twelve. Inherit a massive estate which included
Speaker 1: two palaces in Rome, a set of properties and pieces
Speaker 1: of land on the outskirts of the city, and various
Speaker 1: others in Abruzzo, a region east of Rome belonging to
Speaker 1: the Kingdom of Naples. Of course, much of the estate
Speaker 1: was ill gotten, gained in no small part through embezzlement
Speaker 1: from the papal coffers. The apple didn't fall far from
Speaker 1: the tree, it seems. Even as a child, Francesco was
Speaker 1: described as ill tempered and violent. The first of many
Speaker 1: lawsuits was brought against him when he was only eleven
Speaker 1: years old, after he attacked someone, drawing blood in the process.
Speaker 1: He was also, to put it bluntly, apparently so sexually
Speaker 1: precocious that his tutor advised his mother to marry him
Speaker 1: off quickly to keep him from spending too much time
Speaker 1: with courtesan's or ahem, taking matters into his own hands.
Speaker 1: Maybe the tutor was simply trying to tie himself to
Speaker 1: the Cenchi fortune, but either way, a solution was quickly offered.
Speaker 1: Francesco Cenci would marry his tutor's niece, the aforementioned or Cilia,
Speaker 1: in fifteen sixty three, when they were both fourteen years old.
Speaker 1: It would be four years before the pair had their
Speaker 1: first child, and by then it was clear that Francesco
Speaker 1: was not just quote sexually precocious, He was a sexual predator.
Speaker 1: He racked up criminal and civil penalties not only for
Speaker 1: his violent outbursts, but for acts of sexual violence as well.
Speaker 1: He often assaulted, both sexually and otherwise, men of his
Speaker 1: staff as punishment for violations real and perceived. In fifteen
Speaker 1: sixty seven, around the time that his first child was born,
Speaker 1: Francesco was convicted of hanging a vassal of his one
Speaker 1: who had committed no crime, following a peasant uprising. Later,
Speaker 1: he would beat a servant girl with a broom handle
Speaker 1: for misunderstanding his orders, injuring her so severely that you
Speaker 1: reported being unable to eat, drink, or speak for several
Speaker 1: days following the attack. There does not seem to be
Speaker 1: any documentation confirming whether Francesco's violence was directed at his
Speaker 1: wife or children during this earlier period, although even if
Speaker 1: he did not directly harm them, he certainly created an
Speaker 1: environment of violence and rage in his household that must
Speaker 1: have been unimaginably frightening. And we do know that after
Speaker 1: our Cilia died two days after giving birth, their newborn daughter,
Speaker 1: Francesca died only three days later. From that point, Francesco's
Speaker 1: violence and wild lifestyle escalated rapidly, and his interest in
Speaker 1: showing any kind of care or concerned for his family disappeared,
Speaker 1: if it was ever there to begin with. In fact,
Speaker 1: he got rid of his family where he could. Following
Speaker 1: their mother's death, Beatrice and her older sister Antonia were
Speaker 1: sent to live with the Franciscan nuns at the monastery
Speaker 1: of Santa Croce in Monticettorio. They would remain there for
Speaker 1: roughly seven years. While Beatrice and her sister were in
Speaker 1: the convent. In fifteen eighty five, Feliche Pierre Gentile was
Speaker 1: elected to the papacy, taking the pontifical name Sixtus the Fifth.
Speaker 1: Coming to the role in the midst of the counter Reformation,
Speaker 1: and after some years of stability, he was determined to
Speaker 1: curb corruption in Rome, seeking first and foremost to hold
Speaker 1: the nobility accountable by gasp punishing them when they committed
Speaker 1: crimes in a totally normal response. Francesco Cenchi responded by
Speaker 1: drawing up a will in a bid to protect his assets.
Speaker 1: Upon his death on November twenty two, fifty six, he
Speaker 1: met with a notary and dictated his last wishes. Some
Speaker 1: have pointed to this will and some of the language
Speaker 1: that it uses, the phrase that death may come at
Speaker 1: any hour, and death being the one thing that is
Speaker 1: certain end quote, along with his charitable bequests and many
Speaker 1: invocations of saints, gods and other religious themes, as evidence
Speaker 1: that he was not so evil as some might believe.
Speaker 1: But here's the thing. If you were to walk into
Speaker 1: the state archives of Rome, where most of the city's
Speaker 1: pre modern wills are housed, and pick out a hundred
Speaker 1: from this period at random, you would probably find almost
Speaker 1: these exact phrases and bequests about a hundred times. They
Speaker 1: were just a standard part of will writing in Rome,
Speaker 1: and a variation on the same standards to be found
Speaker 1: in other parts of Italy and beyond. Those words, simply put,
Speaker 1: did not come out of Francesco Cenci's mouth or brain
Speaker 1: the document itself aside. It's the choices Francesco made in
Speaker 1: terms of his children that are of interest here. Most
Speaker 1: of his bequests were pretty standard. He left money for
Speaker 1: the care of his daughters, both legitimate and otherwise, and
Speaker 1: named his primary beneficiaries his sons Christoforo, Rocco, Bernardo, and Paulo,
Speaker 1: noting also that should he have other sons in his future,
Speaker 1: they would be added to the list, except he already
Speaker 1: had another son who wasn't on the list. He had
Speaker 1: long openly disliked his eldest living child, Jocomo, and took
Speaker 1: this opportunity to give his least favorite son one last
Speaker 1: slight to be felt from beyond the grave. Francesco left
Speaker 1: him the minimum amount allowed by the law, a far
Speaker 1: cry from the lavish inheritance presumably awaiting Jacomo's brothers. We
Speaker 1: should not mistake his other bequests for care about his children. Again,
Speaker 1: there were a lot of standard practices in willmaking, and
Speaker 1: other accounts of Francesco's behavior around this time point to
Speaker 1: a neglectful approach to his children at best. But his
Speaker 1: will tells us something important about his relationship with Jacomo
Speaker 1: and his willingness to spite his children in general. Perhaps
Speaker 1: spurred on by Francesco's increasingly erratic behavior, in Pope six
Speaker 1: finally set his sights on the nobleman's embezzled in Brittants.
Speaker 1: He originally instructed Francesco to sell any properties purchased through
Speaker 1: illegal negotiations by his father and returned the money to
Speaker 1: the papal treasury, which would have bankrupted him. But by
Speaker 1: April of that year the fine was whittled down to
Speaker 1: twenty five thousand scootie, which records indicate was enough for
Speaker 1: success To consider the many sins, and I mean many,
Speaker 1: he listed them out in the papal decree of the
Speaker 1: late Monseigneur to be absolved. Now thousand scootie was nothing
Speaker 1: to scoff at, but by now Francesco was well used
Speaker 1: to heavy fines. Over the course of his lifetime, Francesco
Speaker 1: would slowly but surely run his inheritance into the ground,
Speaker 1: simply by the sheer number of criminal and civil penalties
Speaker 1: racked up as a result of his violent nature. Pope
Speaker 1: Sixtus died only a few months later, in August five
Speaker 1: teen ninety. Over the next several years, Rome stability faltered
Speaker 1: under a series of short lived popes, and the city
Speaker 1: became practically lawless. In this environment, Francesco became more violent
Speaker 1: and more brazen about it. The following year, things escalated
Speaker 1: again when Giacomo, his least favorite son, remember, decided to
Speaker 1: get married. Up until now, Beatrice and her sister Antonia
Speaker 1: had been spared their father's wrath while living up at
Speaker 1: the convent. Of course, convent life in the sixteenth century
Speaker 1: was no vacation. This convent, in particular, was generally populated
Speaker 1: by poorer women, and was in fact located in the
Speaker 1: area of Rome in which most of the city's sex
Speaker 1: workers resided. It was an odd place to board two
Speaker 1: young noble girls. It's possible that their father placed them
Speaker 1: there out of a lack of care for their comfort,
Speaker 1: simply wishing to be rid of them in the easiest
Speaker 1: way for him possible. But at the very least the
Speaker 1: two sisters would have been kept safe away from Francesco's
Speaker 1: pattern of violent behavior, and so although we don't know
Speaker 1: much for sure about this time in their lives, I
Speaker 1: like to imagine it was happy, if austere. Unfortunately, that
Speaker 1: peace would not last. Giaco mo Chenchi's marriage to Ludvika Velli,
Speaker 1: a distant cousin, left Francesco seething with jealousy and rage.
Speaker 1: When the newly wet couple settled into their apartment in
Speaker 1: the Cenchi palace, Francesco decided two things. First, he would
Speaker 1: rather move out than witness his son's prosperity, and second,
Speaker 1: it was time for his daughters to come home. One
Speaker 1: can only imagine how jarring it must have in for
Speaker 1: Beatrice A to return to her father's residence in She
Speaker 1: had spent the prior seven years half of her life
Speaker 1: at this point with her sister in a convent, likely
Speaker 1: not sealed off, but certainly shielded from the outside world.
Speaker 1: Now nearly fifteen years old, she was returning to a
Speaker 1: new palace following a great deal of upheaval, both in
Speaker 1: the city and in her family. It was at this
Speaker 1: point that Beatrice's life, already characterized by instability, would take
Speaker 1: a turn toward the horrific. Enraged at his eldest son's
Speaker 1: decision to get married and bring his wife to the
Speaker 1: family palace, Francesco Chenchi moved his permanent residence to another
Speaker 1: of his properties, a palace nestled along the Tiber River.
Speaker 1: He decided to bring Beatrice and Antonia home, ripping them
Speaker 1: from their home of seven years in the process, ostensibly
Speaker 1: because he wanted the company. His decision had essentially split
Speaker 1: the family into His son, Rocco, had come to join
Speaker 1: him in the new residence, but another of his sons, Christofero,
Speaker 1: had chosen to stay with Giacomo, the oldest son and
Speaker 1: his new wife. Francesco had sent two of his other sons,
Speaker 1: Paolo and Bernardo, off to school elsewhere in the city,
Speaker 1: so perhaps bringing the girls home was an attempt to
Speaker 1: tip the family scales in his favor, or maybe he
Speaker 1: simply felt that they had been free from his direct
Speaker 1: control for too long. Competition and bitterness toward his children,
Speaker 1: particularly Giacomo, seems to have fueled not only Francesco's rage
Speaker 1: but also his life choices. Not long after he moved
Speaker 1: to the new palace, he set his sights on procuring
Speaker 1: a marriage of his own. On November he married Lucrezia Petroni,
Speaker 1: the widow of a distant cousin. By this time, Francesco's
Speaker 1: violent nature and tendency towards infidelity was common knowledge, but
Speaker 1: Lucretia had six children of her own, and she entered
Speaker 1: the marriage on the promise that Francesco would fund her
Speaker 1: younger children's education, a promise he would of course fail
Speaker 1: to fulfill, not only for her children but for many
Speaker 1: of his own. The day after their wedding, an illegitimate
Speaker 1: daughter of Francesco's was baptized. The child's mother was a
Speaker 1: long term mistress whom Francesco would try to move into
Speaker 1: his palace with his family and new wife. On this,
Speaker 1: at least, Lucretia was able to put her foot down,
Speaker 1: but it did little to stem her husband's behavior. Not
Speaker 1: even four months into his new marriage, Francisco's habits began
Speaker 1: slowly to catch up with him. In March, Matteo Bonavera,
Speaker 1: a servant of Francesco's, was caught in the act of
Speaker 1: stealing a man's cape. As the police questioned him about
Speaker 1: his crime and asked him who he worked for, they
Speaker 1: were baffled by the servants intimation that his master did
Speaker 1: not want to be spoken of by his staff. Seemingly
Speaker 1: forgetting the matter at hand, The police pressed the issue,
Speaker 1: wondering why on earth any man of noble status would
Speaker 1: wish for such secrecy. Finally, the truth spilled forth. Matteo
Speaker 1: admitted that he and other servants, and even some of
Speaker 1: Francesco's own sons, had witnessed Francesco's many times committing the
Speaker 1: so called unspeakable act sodomy. Sodomy, which by legal definition,
Speaker 1: included any kind of non vaginal intercourse between persons of
Speaker 1: any gender, was a crime during this period in Rome,
Speaker 1: and one so severe it carried the death penalty. Witnesses
Speaker 1: aimed to have seen Francesco with women, girls and male youths.
Speaker 1: Mateo himself claimed to have refused his master's advances. Francesco,
Speaker 1: as might be expected, had committed not just sodomy, but
Speaker 1: had also committed seemingly countless instances of sodom ascidal rape.
Speaker 1: Further investigation brought forth more and more witnesses and victims,
Speaker 1: most of them his servants, who described his tactics of
Speaker 1: coercion and the pleasure he seemed to take in inflicting
Speaker 1: pain on his victims during the act. There was little
Speaker 1: physical evidence to corroborate these crimes, but the sheer number
Speaker 1: of witnesses, coupled with the scandalousness of the crime, meant
Speaker 1: that Francesco would be arrested and imprisoned awaiting trial. After
Speaker 1: all his years of violence, it finally seemed like he
Speaker 1: might be stopped. Despite the scandal that it would have
Speaker 1: brought on the Chenchi family, this moment must have brought
Speaker 1: with it also some real, if tentative relief. But abusive,
Speaker 1: powerful men with wide networks of people willing to protect
Speaker 1: them are a tale as old as time. The husband
Speaker 1: of one of Francesco's illegitimate daughters, happened to be a
Speaker 1: lawyer in the Papal Court of Justice. He took on
Speaker 1: the job of being Francesco's advocate and managed to get
Speaker 1: him released from prison. There was, however, a fine. Francesco
Speaker 1: was ordered to pay one hundred thousand scootie, a significant
Speaker 1: portion of his already disappearing inheritance, and he could not
Speaker 1: leave the Papal States until his fine was paid. Whatever neglect, spite,
Speaker 1: or violence or combination Francesco had previously directed towards his family,
Speaker 1: it would pale in comparison to the all out war
Speaker 1: he waged after his sodomy aisle. He openly accused Giacomo
Speaker 1: of getting him imprisoned in order to steal his fortune,
Speaker 1: and even of plotting his murder, which, while it was
Speaker 1: a prescient accusation, it was one that was directed at
Speaker 1: the wrong child. Francesco had also by this time turned
Speaker 1: on Christophero, the one who had chosen not to move
Speaker 1: with him following Jacomo's marriage, Having taken after his father.
Speaker 1: In terms of his reputation for brutality, it seems Christofero
Speaker 1: was a more formidable foe than his father expected, and
Speaker 1: a threat from him may have been the reason Francesco
Speaker 1: was anxious to leave Rome at the earliest opportunity. You
Speaker 1: might have noticed that for much of this episode, Beatrice
Speaker 1: has been very much a background player, nearly forgotten in
Speaker 1: the chaos, drama, bloodshed and crimes of her father's life.
Speaker 1: This is for many reasons, chief among them that French
Speaker 1: ESCO's life has been heavily documented through court records in
Speaker 1: a way Beatrichse was not, which simply left us with
Speaker 1: more information about him than about her. All of this
Speaker 1: would change in when Francesco made his final payment to
Speaker 1: the Papal exchequer and moved to a castle he borrowed
Speaker 1: from a friend, because by this point most of his
Speaker 1: places were in disrepair. The castle was in Petrella, about
Speaker 1: a hundred miles east of Rome, somewhat menacingly called lau
Speaker 1: Roca or the Rock. He took Lucretia, his wife of
Speaker 1: not quite two years, and be a Treach with him.
Speaker 1: It was this move, and the horrific events which followed,
Speaker 1: which would finally put Via Treach center stage. The next
Speaker 1: two years of Beatricese life were ones of unending torture
Speaker 1: and cruelty. She and her stepmother were in prisoned in Larocca.
Speaker 1: Francesco had fashioned their chambers into literal cells, making their
Speaker 1: servants into jailers, and cutting off their access to the
Speaker 1: outside world. During this time, Beatrice also lost two of
Speaker 1: her brothers, Christofero in a dispute over a courtesan and
Speaker 1: Paulo of an unknown cause. Following his and Bernardo's own
Speaker 1: escape back to Rome after an ill fated visit to
Speaker 1: La Petrella, Bernardo, the youngest of Francesco's legitimate sons, found
Speaker 1: safe haven in the household of his elder brother Jacomo.
Speaker 1: Over these two years, Beatrice and Lucretia had considered and
Speaker 1: attempted to plot and escape, and, according to reports from servants,
Speaker 1: at least Beatrice was so distraught she was even considering suicide.
Speaker 1: With the help of the administrator of Larocca, the women
Speaker 1: were eventually able to send letters to Giacomo and other
Speaker 1: relatives in Rome begging for help, and said that at
Speaker 1: one point Beatrice even reached out to Pope Clement, begging
Speaker 1: him to free her from her father's torment. In December, however,
Speaker 1: Francesco managed to intercept one of these letters while he
Speaker 1: was in Rome conducting business and who knows what else.
Speaker 1: Enraged by the entirely correct accusations his daughter had made,
Speaker 1: he returned to La Petrella determined to make her regret it.
Speaker 1: In depositions, witnesses would later offer a cryptic description of
Speaker 1: Beatrice's treatment at the hands of her father, depositions that
Speaker 1: would fuel rumors and be a cause for great dispute
Speaker 1: among scholars and people who have written about her. Although
Speaker 1: Beatrice was about twenty and Francesco had made no attempts
Speaker 1: to secure a marriage for her, even going so far,
Speaker 1: according to some accounts, as to refuse a match suggested
Speaker 1: by Pope Clement himself, there was the matter of a
Speaker 1: dowry he didn't want to pay, but the testimony of
Speaker 1: the servants at Larocca would fuel other suspicions. In one deposition,
Speaker 1: a servant named Girolama described in graphic detail via triche's
Speaker 1: terrifying punishment following Francesco's discovery of her letters. According to
Speaker 1: the notary who transcribed her testimony, the servant said, quote,
Speaker 1: he took a bull pizzle which he kept there, and
Speaker 1: he thrashed her horribly with it. Saying that she had
Speaker 1: written to Rome and had also sent a petition and
Speaker 1: Beatriche denied these allegations, and he kept her shut in
Speaker 1: her bedroom for two or three days, and he himself
Speaker 1: brought her food, and he would open the door of
Speaker 1: her bedroom and put it on the floor, and then
Speaker 1: he would go away at his good will and quote
Speaker 1: it is this last bit he would go away at
Speaker 1: his good will in particular, which would fuel allegations in
Speaker 1: his time as well as ours, that Francesco committed incest
Speaker 1: with his daughter. Belinda Jack, a scholar who has written
Speaker 1: on bea Tree Cha, suggests that this phrasing may have
Speaker 1: been a roundabout way of indicating this that Francesco was
Speaker 1: entering his daughter's bedroom for a specific purpose and would
Speaker 1: only leave when his desires had been met. She also
Speaker 1: points out one of the trap scholars tend to fall
Speaker 1: into in their debates about this allegation. Following hundreds of
Speaker 1: years of speculation, many have insisted that even for someone
Speaker 1: like Francesco, incest was a quote natural boundary he simply
Speaker 1: could not have crossed. It's an assertion one can only
Speaker 1: make because of the lack of physical evidence and even
Speaker 1: of outright accusation and be a tree chase case, although
Speaker 1: her lawyer would use it as a defense later on.
Speaker 1: But just because something is terrible doesn't mean it didn't happen,
Speaker 1: And as we well know, just because no physical evidence
Speaker 1: was found doesn't mean it wasn't there, especially when the
Speaker 1: perpetrator in question was one of great means and influence
Speaker 1: with a lot to lose. We may never know what
Speaker 1: exactly happened to be a treach a when her father
Speaker 1: would quote open the door of the bedroom. But Dr
Speaker 1: Jack I believe is correct that we need to consider
Speaker 1: the possibility that incestuous rape or the threat of it,
Speaker 1: was a significant factor in determining what would happen next.
Speaker 1: That administrator of La Rocca, a man named Olympio Calvetti,
Speaker 1: would remain be a treach a and lucretious connection to
Speaker 1: their relatives in Rome. When Beatrice finally decided that she
Speaker 1: had enough, it was Olympio whom she turned to first.
Speaker 1: The original plan was to poison Francesco, and Olympio was
Speaker 1: set to meet with Giacomo and Paulo in Rome to
Speaker 1: procure the means. When Olympia returned, however, via trich A
Speaker 1: lamented that her paranoid father had begun making her and
Speaker 1: Lucretia taste his food before he ate. They would have
Speaker 1: to think of something else. Finally, they had a lucky opportunity.
Speaker 1: In September, Francesco took ill with gout and was convalescing
Speaker 1: in his chambers. Via Tricha knew now was the time
Speaker 1: to strike. Olympio and another servant, Marzio Catalano, was sent
Speaker 1: into Francesco's chambers on the morning of September seven. They
Speaker 1: almost immediately ran back out, fearful of what might happen
Speaker 1: if they got caught. But for beatri Cha, there was
Speaker 1: too much at stake and there was no turning back.
Speaker 1: She chastised the men, saying that if they were unwilling
Speaker 1: to carry out their long standing plan, she would mark
Speaker 1: to write in there and murder her father with her
Speaker 1: own bare hands. Renewed in their resolve, the two men
Speaker 1: went back in and bludgeoned Francesco to death as he slept.
Speaker 1: Be a tree Cha was free. Before she could revel
Speaker 1: in her freedom, be a tree Cha knew there was
Speaker 1: another matter at hand, that of covering up their crime.
Speaker 1: She had her hitman dressed her father's corpse and fling
Speaker 1: him off of his balcony into the brush below. They
Speaker 1: made a hole in the balcony by removing some planks
Speaker 1: from the floor, hoping to make it seem as though
Speaker 1: the man had fallen through and be a tree. Cha
Speaker 1: and Lucretia took on the task of hiding the bloody sheets.
Speaker 1: Then they called for help, and Olympio came to the
Speaker 1: castle to share the news of a horrible accident at
Speaker 1: La Rocca. For his part, Marzio fled the castle, though
Speaker 1: he later would return to collect payment for his part
Speaker 1: in the conspiracy. But whether it was through adrenaline or
Speaker 1: sheer ineptitude, their cover up was sloppily carried out and
Speaker 1: in the end quite obvious. As the crowd gathered at
Speaker 1: the castle, they wondered how could such a large man
Speaker 1: fall through such a small hole in the balcony, and
Speaker 1: certainly a passing branch could not have made such a
Speaker 1: deep gash in his eye. As the days war on,
Speaker 1: gossip continued as Lucretia and Beatrice declined to attend Francesco's burial.
Speaker 1: Before long it was determined that Francesco Chenchi's death, however
Speaker 1: well deserved, it might have been was no accident. It
Speaker 1: would not take long for these rumors and the consensus
Speaker 1: that followed to reach Rome, more specifically the papal authorities.
Speaker 1: An investigation began in Earnest in November, and initially, although
Speaker 1: they were detained on house arrest in Rome, Jacomo, Lucretia
Speaker 1: and Beatrice were treated with a great deal of civility
Speaker 1: due to their status. Back in La Patrella, Olympia was
Speaker 1: trying to retroactively make their case stronger. He widened the
Speaker 1: hole they had made in the balcony and employed his
Speaker 1: wife to dispose of the hidden bloody bedsheets. For some reason,
Speaker 1: perhaps some would later suggest she was jealous of her
Speaker 1: husband's relationship to be a tree Cha she did not
Speaker 1: dispose of them, but rather simply hid them away elsewhere
Speaker 1: whereas Romans would express a great deal of compassion for
Speaker 1: be a tree Chase plate. The clumsiness of the cover up,
Speaker 1: coupled with the conspirators apparent arrogance in sticking to their
Speaker 1: ridiculous story, rankled the people of La Petrella. Although they
Speaker 1: had little love for the late Francesco, the villagers bulked
Speaker 1: at the thought of powerful people literally getting away with
Speaker 1: murder and they share their suspicions and observations with investigators
Speaker 1: from Rome. With all of this new evidence in hand,
Speaker 1: Papal authorities began to treat the chen Chi like the
Speaker 1: criminals they supposed them to be. They were moved from
Speaker 1: house arrest to the prison at toward Nona Jiacomo Chenchi,
Speaker 1: from his imprisonment, was able to allegedly orchestrate the murder
Speaker 1: of their greatest threat, Olympio. His arrogance threatened them all,
Speaker 1: and so he was beheaded by a bounty hunter, allegedly
Speaker 1: after Jacomo put a price on his head. The other murderer, Marzio,
Speaker 1: would not survive either, dying while in the process of
Speaker 1: being tortured by authorities. But Olympio's death was in fact
Speaker 1: what sealed the chen Chi's fate. His wife, enraged by
Speaker 1: the murder of her husband, went to the authorities with
Speaker 1: everything she knew. She had seen the bloody bedsheets, in fact,
Speaker 1: she had hidden them and knew exactly where they were
Speaker 1: under torture. Both Jacomo and Lucretia admitted to their crime,
Speaker 1: but both pointed the finger firmly at Beatrice as the
Speaker 1: guiding force of the conspiracy. For her part, Beatrice is
Speaker 1: said to have withstood torture bravely and resolutely, admitting nothing
Speaker 1: except an affair with Olympio, which some scholars believe was
Speaker 1: a forced confession. The point of getting her to admit
Speaker 1: an affair would be to quell the already growing compassion
Speaker 1: for her among the Roman people. All of the conspirators, Jocomo, Lucretia,
Speaker 1: Young Bernardo and Beatrice would be subject to torture as
Speaker 1: authorities questioned them. This was unusual. Nobility were usually spared
Speaker 1: from such brutal treatment, but Pope Clement had given special
Speaker 1: permission for its use in this case. He was on
Speaker 1: a tirade against increasing violent crime among the wealthy and powerful,
Speaker 1: and of course, there was the matter of the funds
Speaker 1: he stood to gain through the seizure of assets and
Speaker 1: fines should the Chench's be executed. Francesco and his sins
Speaker 1: and the debts that came of them continued taunt the
Speaker 1: Chenchi family. Finally, almost exactly one year after the murder
Speaker 1: of Francesco Cenchi, Pope Clement's sentence was handed down. Accounts
Speaker 1: vary as to the exact order of the events. On
Speaker 1: the day the Cenchi were executed even early in the morning.
Speaker 1: It was so swelteringly hot, and the crowd was so
Speaker 1: riotous and chaotic that multiple onlookers died, either of heat
Speaker 1: stroke or by falling into the Tiber as people pushed
Speaker 1: and shoved their way onto the sant Angelo. Of course,
Speaker 1: it would be difficult to keep a clear sense of
Speaker 1: what was going on and in what order in these conditions.
Speaker 1: Many retellings of the story put Via Trea Chase execution last,
Speaker 1: likely because that's just good storytelling, but most sources and
Speaker 1: scholars do seem to agree that the order was Lucretia,
Speaker 1: then via Tricha, then Giacomo. The two women were brought
Speaker 1: to the place of execution together and offered at least
Speaker 1: a modicum of dignity. They were made to walk on
Speaker 1: foot through the straits of Rome, unbound and wearing mourning garments,
Speaker 1: before being allowed to say their last rites in a
Speaker 1: small chapel near their place of execution. Bernardo, the younger brother,
Speaker 1: who because of his young age and limited involvement, was
Speaker 1: spared execution, was still required to witness the deaths of
Speaker 1: his family as part of his punishment before he was
Speaker 1: sentenced to labor and he joined his sister and stepmother
Speaker 1: as they said massed together. Lucretia's execution was swift, and
Speaker 1: the crowd seemed to have relatively little sympathy for her,
Speaker 1: although she had suffered many of the same injustices as
Speaker 1: her stepdaughter. She was apparently so fearful as she approached
Speaker 1: the platform that she fainted and had to be carried
Speaker 1: to the execution block. She was beheaded before she regained consciousness,
Speaker 1: which to me seems a mercy. Jacomo was likely executed last,
Speaker 1: and certainly most brutally. He was led by a cart
Speaker 1: through the streets to the execution platform. They're already injured
Speaker 1: from torture. He was further mutilated with red hot tongs
Speaker 1: before being bludgeoned to death with a mallet, dismembered and
Speaker 1: having parts of his body displayed unhooked by the platform.
Speaker 1: In between these two extremes was be a tree Chay.
Speaker 1: The crowd had fallen silent the moment she came into view,
Speaker 1: but as she walked, showing not a bit of hesitation
Speaker 1: to replace on the platform, many in the crowd couldn't
Speaker 1: help but let out a cry at her plight. Without
Speaker 1: a word, she knelt at the block, the axe fell
Speaker 1: and it was over. The Roman virgin was dead. The
Speaker 1: moment be a tree Cha chen she died, something changed
Speaker 1: in the crowd. What had been a riot immediately transformed
Speaker 1: into a somber funeral for their newfound popular heroine, taken
Speaker 1: in her prime for the crime of standing up to
Speaker 1: her oppressor. Even the bloody display of Jochma's execution couldn't
Speaker 1: divert their intense focus on be A tree Chay. Following
Speaker 1: the executions and Bernardo's returned to the prison at toward
Speaker 1: an Era, it was required for the bodies to remain
Speaker 1: on display for some time part of the witnessing process
Speaker 1: of public executions. Many onlookers waited with beatrie Chase body
Speaker 1: as if to keep her company. Some accounts stated that
Speaker 1: young girls left wreaths of flowers around her severed head.
Speaker 1: When leave was finally given for the Chenchi to be
Speaker 1: taken to their graves, be atrie Chase procession was by
Speaker 1: far the largest. Romans from all corners of society gathered
Speaker 1: again at pontisser Angelo and walked over a mile in
Speaker 1: the heat, following her coffin through the streets of the city,
Speaker 1: bringing Batre Chi chen Chi to her final resting place
Speaker 1: at the Church of San Pietro in Montorio. They left
Speaker 1: heaps of flowers, blit candles, and stood vigil for hours.
Speaker 1: Although her grave was unmarked a consequence of her criminal status,
Speaker 1: and would later be desecrated by French soldiers in seventeen,
Speaker 1: beatreeche Chenchi left an indelible imprint on the people of
Speaker 1: Rome and beyond. She has been the subject of endless plays, books,
Speaker 1: movies and artwork, inspiring the likes of Percy Bysshelley, Alexander Dumat,
Speaker 1: Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Stendel. But her most visible and perhaps
Speaker 1: meaningful legacy is arguably still in the streets of Rome.
Speaker 1: Among the many ways she has been memorialized throughout the city,
Speaker 1: there's a small plaque that was placed in on Via Montserrato,
Speaker 1: from where she has said to have begun her final
Speaker 1: walk to pontissen Anglo. A translation reads from here where
Speaker 1: stood the Savella Court prison. On the eleventh of September
Speaker 1: fift beatreeche Chenchi moved toward the executioner's block. An exemplary
Speaker 1: victim of an unjust justice. That's the story of Beatrice
Speaker 1: Cenci's tragic life and end, but stick around after a
Speaker 1: brief sponsor message to hear about one of the odd
Speaker 1: places her legacy has endured. In the Palazzo Barberini, an
Speaker 1: aristocratic estate turned art museum in the heart of Rome,
Speaker 1: there are several rooms devoted to the famous painter Caravaggio
Speaker 1: and his many followers. Caravaggio happened to have been among
Speaker 1: the witnesses at the Cenchia execution. The sunlit space in
Speaker 1: the museum is contrasted by paintings of darkened rooms, their
Speaker 1: subjects seeming to be the only source of light in
Speaker 1: the frame. Among these paintings, some of them grand and busy,
Speaker 1: is a simple portrait of a young woman. She wears
Speaker 1: a white chemise and a white head covering, both standing
Speaker 1: out against and inscrutable blackened background. She faces away from
Speaker 1: the viewer, but turns her head back with a soft,
Speaker 1: innocent expression. For hundreds of years, this was believed to
Speaker 1: be a portrait of Beatrice Cenci in her final days,
Speaker 1: and it's easy to see why. It's a painting of
Speaker 1: a beautiful girl looking a little sad, maybe resolute, and
Speaker 1: draped in white drapery. She's a picture of innocence, but
Speaker 1: she's also a blank canvas, someone we can paint a
Speaker 1: story onto and make our own. Even though it has
Speaker 1: been confirmed that this painting was not of Beatriccha, it
Speaker 1: was more likely intended to represent a Ofpetus, it remains
Speaker 1: the image most associated with her. It's at the top
Speaker 1: of a Wikipedia page, on the cover of books about her,
Speaker 1: and all over the Internet. It's the epitome of what
Speaker 1: we've made be a treat A into not just in
Speaker 1: public memory, but in an almost endless list of literary, dramatic,
Speaker 1: and artistic renditions of her life, something that's compiling, dramatic,
Speaker 1: and ultimately not really her at all. This painting, however,
Speaker 1: is not the only one housed in the Barberini with
Speaker 1: something to say about Beatrice and her story. One of
Speaker 1: Caravaggio's best known works sits just stepped away from this
Speaker 1: famed portrait, painted around the time of the trial and execution,
Speaker 1: or possibly a few years later. Judith beheading Holofernes is
Speaker 1: said to have been inspired by the plight of beatri
Speaker 1: Cha Chenchi. It depicts the climactic moment in the Biblical
Speaker 1: story of Judith, a beautiful and brave Jewish widow who
Speaker 1: charmed away into the chamber of the Assyrian General Hall
Speaker 1: of furnace before you know, beheading him and becoming a
Speaker 1: hero to her people. The story of Judith was a
Speaker 1: symbol of feminine revenge even in this period, so the
Speaker 1: parallels with Beatrice are definitely there. But what I think
Speaker 1: is most interesting is Caravaggio's depiction of Judith herself. Where
Speaker 1: other Judiths have been depicted with a fierceness befitting a
Speaker 1: woman bravely sneaking behind enemy lines, particularly one excellent painting
Speaker 1: by the female artist Artemacy of Gentileschi, in Caravaggio's painting,
Speaker 1: his Judith seems almost doubtful. Her beautiful, innocent face is
Speaker 1: contorted in disgust at her violent act, and she leans
Speaker 1: her body away from the dying hall of furnace, almost
Speaker 1: separating herself from her crime. This is reluctant violence. Caravaggio
Speaker 1: seems to be saying the violence of a woman who
Speaker 1: remains innocent, and yet her hands never falter. She resolutely
Speaker 1: wields her sword and destroys her enemy, bloody ing his bedsheets.
Speaker 1: She saves her people. She did what she had to do.
Speaker 1: Noble Blood is a production of I Heart Radio and
Speaker 1: Grim and Mild from Aaron Manky. Noble Blood is hosted
Speaker 1: by me Danish Wartz. Additional writing and researching done by
Speaker 1: Hannah Johnston, hannah's Wick, Mira Hayward, Courtney Sunder and Laurie Goodman.
Speaker 1: The show is produced by rema Il Kali, with supervising
Speaker 1: producer Josh Thaine and executive producers Aaron Manky, Alex Williams,
Speaker 1: and Matt Frederick. For more podcasts from I heart Radio,
Speaker 1: visit the I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows.