Felice della Rovere

Who was Felice della Rovere?

Felice della Rovere, also known as Madonna Felice, was an illegitimate daughter of Pope Julius II and was one of the most powerful women of the Italian Renaissance. Through the influence of her father, including an arranged marriage to Gian Giordano Orsini, she wielded extraordinary wealth and influence both within and beyond the Roman Curia. In particular, she negotiated a peace between Julius II and the Queen of France.

Della Rovere's mother was Lucrezia Normanni, from an ancient Roman family, for whom Julius II had arranged a marriage to Bernardino de Cupis, a majordomo in the della Rovere household. Giovanni Domenico de Cupis, the son of Normanni and de Cupis, was elevated to a cardinal by Leo X. There is limited documentary evidence that della Rovere was married at 14, and was widowed shortly afterward. According to Murphy, della Rovere de facto filled "the role that she knew would have been hers had she been born a boy, that of cardinal nipote".

Julius II, who had apparently previously attempted to arrange strategic marriages for his daughter, did not attend her nuptials when she finally consented to marry Gian Giordano Orsini at the age of 23. Subsequently, financial records, secondary sources, documents in the Orsini archives, and letters to and from Felice indicate that she exercised considerable influence over not only Julius II, but his Medici successors Pope Leo X and Pope Clement VII, although not the Dutch outsider Pope Adrian VI.