Despite outpourings of public sympathy, Beatrice Cenci was beheaded in 1599 after a lurid murder trial in Rome that gave rise to an enduring legend about her.

[3] Beatrice was the daughter of Ersilia Santacroce and Count Francesco Cenci,[4] a "man of great wealth but dissolute habits and violent temper".

After her mother's death, Beatrice and her elder sister Antonina were sent to a small monastery, Santa Croce a Montecitorio for Franciscan Tertiary nuns in the rione Colonna of Rome.

[3] When he found out that his daughter had reported him, he sent Beatrice and Lucrezia away from Rome to live in the family's castle at La Petrella del Salto.

[7] Knowing the reasons for the murder, the common people of Rome protested against the tribunal's decision, obtaining a short postponement of the execution.

Only the 12-year-old Bernardo was spared, but he was led to the scaffold and forced to witness the execution of his relatives before returning to prison and having his properties confiscated (to be given to the Pope's own family).

[10] Beatrice Cenci has been the subject of a number of literary and musical works: Statues, paintings, and photography also provide numerous portraits and homages to Beatice Cenci: The Italian painter Caravaggio witnessed Beatrice's public execution and may have used it as inspiration for the decapitation scene in his painting Judith Beheading Holofernes.

[11] A statue by American sculptor Harriet Goodhue Hosmer entitled Beatrice Cenci (1857) is on display at the Mercantile Library on the University of Missouri–St.

In Letitia Elizabeth Landon's short story "The Bride of Lindorf" (1836), the main character has an emotional attachment to the painting of Beatrice Cenci.

The 1969 Italian film Beatrice Cenci, directed by Lucio Fulci starring Adrienne La Russa in the title role, follows the historical events of her life very closely.