Pope's Daughter: The Extraordinary Life Of Felice Della Rovere?

The Pope’s Daughter: The Extraordinary Life of Felice della Rovere is the perfect blend of a scholarly read and a sensational history novel. Caroline Murphy did a fantastic job of the telling the life story of Felice della Rovere. Murphy’s book shows how a Renaissance woman achieved great power and respect by not birthright but by working for it. Felice della Rovere was the daughter of “The Warrior Pope” Julius II, and by definition, illegitimate. Julius did not want to be associated with the pervious pope, “The Borgia Pope” Alexender VI, and how he daunted on his daughter (Lucrezia). As a result of this hatred for Alexander, Julius kept his daughter at a distance. Felice and her father’s relationship were by no means pleasant. She refused one proposal after another thought-out her teens and early twenties, she finally agreed to marry Gian Giordano Orsini. Julius was unlike the affectionate Alexander because Julius never, …show more content…
She demonstrated a strong mind many times; one example was when she was on the boat from Rome to Savona “vowing to drown rather than allow herself to be captured by the Borgia”. Eventually Julius did become similar to Alexander by allowing Felice to negotiate business in his name, just like Alexander allowed Lucrezia Borgia had done when Alexander was on papal tours. Felice was more headstrong than the previous pope’s daughter when it came to marriage. Lucrezia Borgia married many times, Felice della Rovere refused to marry someone she did not respect one of the many reasons Felice rejected marriage in general. Once Felice and Orsini married, Julius gave her some money of her own. She used this money to buy an estate and to set herself up a grain supplier, which gave her a standpoint as a wealthy independent woman of the Renaissance, which was quite unusual. Murphy writes, Felice “knew she would have had a name for hers had she been born a