'I thought I had made myself clear. I want something that conveys her majesty her bloodline.
Do you understand? She is no ordinary mortal. Treat her thus.' Florence the 1560s. Lucrezia
third daughter of Cosimo de' Medici is free to wander the palazzo at will wondering at its
treasures and observing its clandestine workings. But when her older sister dies on the eve of
marriage to Alfonso d'Este ruler of Ferrara Modena and Reggio Lucrezia is thrust unwittingly
into the limelight: the duke is quick to request her hand in marriage and her father to accept
on her behalf. Having barely left girlhood Lucrezia must now make her way in a troubled court
whose customs are opaque and where her arrival is not universally welcomed. Perhaps most
mystifying of all is her husband himself Alfonso. Is he the playful sophisticate her appears
before their wedding the aesthete happiest in the company of artists and musicians or the
ruthless politician before whom even his formidable sisters seem to tremble? As Lucrezia sits
in uncomfortable finery for the painting which is to preserve her image for centuries to come
one thing becomes worryingly clear. In the court's eyes she has one duty: to provide the heir
who will shore up the future of the Ferrarese dynasty. Until then for all of her rank and
nobility her future hangs entirely in the balance.
