In absolutely authentic records I discovered the dates of birth of Caesar and Lucretia, which clear up forever many errors regarding the genealogy and even the history of the house.

Caesar was born in the month of April, 1476--the day is not given--and Lucretia on the eighteenth of April, 1480.

Their father, when he was pope, gave their ages in accordance with these dates.

In October, 1501, he mentioned the subject to the ambassador of Ferrara, and the latter, writing to the Duke Ercole, said, "The Pope gave me to understand that the Duchess (Lucretia) was in her twenty-second year, which she will complete next April, in which month also the most illustrious Duke of Romagna (Caesar) will be twenty-six." If the correctness of the father's statement of the age of his own children is questioned, it may be confirmed by other reports and records.

In despatches which a Ferrarese ambassador sent to the same duke from Rome much earlier, namely, in February and March, 1483, the age of Caesar at that time is given as sixteen to seventeen years, which agrees with the subsequent statement of his father.[5] The son of Alexander VI was, therefore, a few years younger than has hitherto been supposed, and this fact has an important bearing upon his short and terrible life.