Biography of Beatrice Cenci
11 September 1599
Beatrice Cenci was a Roman noblewoman accused and then executed (for killing father) then become popular heroine role. Born on 6 February 1577 in Rome, the daughter of Francesco, count Santacroce and debauched Ersilia and violent. Having lost his mother as a child, just seven years Beatrice Cenci is entrusted to the Franciscan Nuns of the monastery of Santa Croce in Montecitorio together with his sister Antonina. At fifteen he returns to the family, but is a violent environment and complicated with the father that the pitfall and the torture. He married his second wife, Lucrezia Petroni, after being in prison and being heavily indebted, wants to prevent her daughter to get married, so you don't have to pay the dowry, and to achieve its purpose gets to the point of segregarla in a small castle la Roccacalled Cicolano, Petrella Salto, in the Kingdom of Naples.
Is the 1595: Beatrice Cenci begins to hatch an exasperated resentment against the father, and with the help of the servants help their relatives sends letters; one of these, though, comes in the hands of the father himself, that to punish her beats her violently. When, in 1597, the man withdraws in Petrella gout sufferer and mange and overwhelmed by debt, Beatrice 's life deteriorates further. So, exasperated from sexual abuse and violence by being inflicted, decides to kill his father with the help of the brothers Bernard and James, the stepmother Lucrezia, a Carpenter and blacksmith. His attempts, however, go to vacuum twice: in the first case the poison administered to man has not the desired effect, while in the second case an ambush set up by local bandits proves unsuccessful.
The murder, however, was not long in coming: stunned by opium, father of Beatrice is repeatedly beaten with a rolling pin and then finished with a hammer and a nail. To hide the crime, the conspirators dumped the man's body from the balustrade: after the funeral the corpse is buried quickly in a local church, while Beatrice Cenci and her family return to Rome. Soon, however, suspicions and rumors induce the authorities to investigate the death of count. The Duke Marzio Colonna and Viceroy of the Kingdom of Naples Henry of Gusman ordering two investigations; afterwards it even Pope Clement VIII to intervene. After having exhumed the body, two surgeons establish that a fall may not have been the cause of death. Like the other conspirators, including Beatrice, after having denied at first its involvement in the killer, is subjected to the torture of the rope, and is forced to admit the murder: is then locked in the prison of Corte Savella together with her stepmother Lucrezia. At trial, the girl is defended by Prospero Farinacci, one of the most prominent lawyers of his time, who accused Francis of having raped the girl. The process, however, is not successful, and even the request for clemency submitted to the Pope is rejected. Beatrice and Lucrezia, so are condemned to be beheaded.
The execution is staged in the square of Castel Sant'Angelo on the morning of 11 September 1599, in front of a large group of people (including Caravaggio, which will be considerably affected by the story of Beatrice Cenci, and Orazio Gentileschi). The crowd is so great that some spectators die in a stampede while others fall into the Tiber; Beatrice and her stepmother are beheaded with a sword. His corpse, as explicit request, was buried in a tomb under a tombstone with no name (thus imposes the law for executed to death) in front of the main altar of San Pietro in Montorio. His grave will be desecrated two centuries later, during the occupation of the French soldiers during the first Roman Republic: one of them will open the girl's case and will pick up his skull. The Figure of Beatrice Cenci will become, over time, more and more famous, remembered today as a popular heroine, a character symbol against violence committed against women.
Article contributed by the team of collaborators.