20. Vengeance Plot Leads to Multiple Executions
Although torture had failed to extract a confession from Beatrice Cenci, the confessions extracted from the rest of her family were enough. All were tried, were found guilty, and were sentenced to death. The people of Rome, who approved of the vengeance visited upon the abusive Count Cenci, protested and managed to get the execution postponed. However, it was only a temporary reprieve, and Pope Clement VIII insisted that the sentences be carried out. On September 11, 1599, the Cencis were taken for execution in front of the Sant’Angelo castle in Rome.
Giacomo got the worst of it, getting tortured in a cart en route to the scaffold. Once he got there, his head was smashed in with a mallet, then his corpse was quartered. Lucrezia and Beatrice were then executed, more swiftly and mercifully, their heads chopped off with an ax. At the last minute, twelve-year-old Bernardo, who had been forced to watch the deaths of his mother and siblings, was spared execution. Instead, he was sentenced to life as a galley slave, but was freed a year later. The Cenci property was confiscated – and given to Pope Clement VIII‘s family.
