Italian condottiero, founder of the Sforza dynasty
Francesco I Sforza
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Reign
| 25 March 1450 ? 8 March 1466
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Predecessor
| Golden Ambrosian Republic
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Successor
| Galeazzo Maria Sforza
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Born
| (
1401-07-23
)
23 July 1401
Cigoli, San Miniato
,
Republic of Florence
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Died
| 8 March 1466
(1466-03-08)
(aged 64)
Milan
,
Duchy of Milan
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Spouse
| Polissena Ruffo
Bianca Maria Visconti
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Issue
| Galeazzo Maria Sforza
, Duke of Milan
Ippolita Maria Sforza
, Duchess of Calabria
Filippo Maria Sforza, Count of Corsica
Sforza Maria Sforza, Duke of Bari
Francesco Galeazzo Maria Sforza
Ludovico Sforza
, Duke of Milan
Ascanio Maria Sforza
Elisabetta Maria Sforza, Marquise of Montferrato
Ottaviano Maria Sforza, Count of Lugano
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House
| Sforza
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Father
| Muzio Attendolo Sforza
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Mother
| Lucia de Martini (Demartini)
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Francesco I Sforza
KG
(
Italian pronunciation:
[fran?t?esko
?priːmo
?sf?rtsa]
; 23 July 1401 ? 8 March 1466) was an Italian
condottiero
who founded the
Sforza
dynasty in the
duchy of Milan
, ruling as its (fourth)
duke
from 1450 until his death.
In the 1420s, he participated in the
War of L'Aquila
and in the 1430s fought for the
Papal States
and Milan against
Venice
. Once the war between Milan and Venice ended in 1441 under
mediation
by Sforza, he successfully invaded southern Italy alongside
Rene of Anjou
, pretender to the throne of Naples, and after that returned to
Milan
. He was instrumental in the
Treaty of Lodi
(1454) which ensured peace in the Italian realms for a time by ensuring a strategic balance of power. He died in 1466 and was succeeded as duke by his son,
Galeazzo Maria Sforza
. While Sforza was recognized as duke of Milan, his son
Ludovico
would be the first to have formal investiture under the
Holy Roman Empire
by
Maximilian I
in 1494.
Biography
[
edit
]
Early life
[
edit
]
Francesco Sforza was born in
Cigoli
, near
San Miniato
,
Tuscany
, one of the seven illegitimate sons of the condottiero
Muzio Sforza
and
Lucia de Martini
.
He was the brother of
Alessandro Sforza
. He spent his childhood in
Tricarico
(in the modern
Basilicata
), the marquisate of which he was granted in 1412 by King
Ladislaus of Naples
. In 1418, he married
Polissena Ruffo
, a
Calabrese
noblewoman.
From 1419, he fought alongside his father, soon gaining fame for being able to bend metal bars with his bare hands. He later proved himself to be an expert tactician and a very skilled field commander. After the death of his father during the
War of L'Aquila
, he participated in
Braccio da Montone
's final defeat in that campaign; he fought subsequently for the Neapolitan army and then for
Pope Martin V
and the
Duke of Milan
,
Filippo Maria Visconti
. After some successes, he fell in disgrace and was sent to the castle of
Mortara
as a prisoner. He regained his status after leading an expedition against
Lucca
.
In 1431, after fighting again for the
Papal States
, he led the Milanese army against
Venice
; the following year the duke's daughter,
Bianca Maria
, was betrothed to him.
Despite these moves, the wary Filippo Maria never ceased to be distrustful of Sforza. The allegiance of mercenary leaders was dependent, of course, on pay; in 1433?1435, Sforza led the Milanese attack on the Papal States, but when he conquered
Ancona
, in
Marche
, he changed sides, obtaining the title of vicar of the city directly from
Pope Eugene IV
.
In 1436?39, he served variously both in
Florence
and Venice.
In 1440, his fiefs in the
Kingdom of Naples
were occupied by King
Alfonso I
, and, to recover the situation, Sforza reconciled himself with Filippo Visconti. On 25 October 1441, in
Cremona
, he could finally marry Bianca Maria as part of the
agreements
that ended the war between Milan and Venice. The following year, he allied with
Rene of Anjou
, pretender to the throne of Naples, and marched against southern Italy. After some initial setbacks, he defeated the Neapolitan commander Niccolo Piccinino, who had invaded his possessions in Romagna and Marche, through the help of
Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta
(who had married his daughter
Polissena
) and the Venetians, and could return to Milan.
Sforza later found himself warring against
Francesco Piccinino
(whom he defeated at the
Battle of Montolmo
in 1444) and, later, the alliance of Visconti, Eugene IV, and Malatesta, who had allegedly murdered Polissena. With the help of Venice, Sforza was again victorious and, in exchange for abandoning the Venetians, received the title of
capitano generale
(commander-in-chief) of the Duchy of Milan's armies.
Duke of Milan
[
edit
]
After Filippo Maria Visconti, duke of Milan, died without a male heir in 1447, fighting broke out to restore the so-called
Ambrosian Republic
.
The name Ambrosian Republic takes its name from
St. Ambrose
, the
patron saint
of Milan.
Agnese del Maino
, his wife's mother, convinced the condottiero who held
Pavia
to restore it to him.
He also received the seigniory of other cities of the duchy, including
Lodi
, and started to carefully plan the conquest of the ephemeral republic, allying with
William VIII of Montferrat
and (again) Venice. In 1450, after years of famine, riots raged in the streets of Milan and the city's senate decided to entrust him with the duchy. Sforza entered the city as duke on 26 February. It was the first time that such a title was handed over by a lay institution. While the other Italian states gradually recognized Sforza as the legitimate Duke of Milan, he was never able to obtain official investiture from the
Holy Roman Emperor
. That did not come to the Sforza Dukes until 1494, when
Emperor Maximilian
formally invested Francesco's son,
Ludovico
, as duke of Milan.
Under his rule (which was moderate and skilful), Sforza modernised the city and duchy. He created an efficient system of taxation that generated enormous revenues for the government, his court became a centre of
Renaissance
learning and culture, and the people of Milan grew to love him. In Milan, he founded the
Ospedale Maggiore
, restored the
Palazzo ducale
, and had the
Naviglio d'Adda
, a channel connecting with the
Adda River
, built.
During Sforza's reign, Florence was under the command of
Cosimo de' Medici
and the two rulers became close friends. This friendship eventually manifested in first the
Peace of Lodi
and then the
Italian League
, a multi-polar defensive alliance of Italian states that succeeded in stabilising almost all of Italy for its duration. After the peace, Sforza renounced part of the conquests in eastern Lombardy obtained by his condottieri
Bartolomeo Colleoni
,
Ludovico Gonzaga
, and
Roberto Sanseverino d'Aragona
after 1451. As King
Alfonso I of Naples
was among the signatories of the treaty, Sforza also abandoned his long support of the
Angevin
pretenders to Naples. He also aimed to conquer
Genoa
, then an Angevin possession; when a revolt broke out there in 1461, he had
Spinetta Campofregoso
elected as
Doge
, as his puppet. Sforza occupied Genoa and
Savona
in 1464.
Sforza was the first European ruler to follow a foreign policy based on the concept of the
balance of power
, and the first native Italian ruler to conduct extensive diplomacy outside the peninsula to counter the power of threatening states such as France. Sforza's policies succeeded in keeping foreign powers from dominating Italian politics for the rest of the century.
Edward IV of England
sought to strengthen friendly relations with Sforza and accordingly offered him membership in the prestigious
Order of the Garter
.
He accepted and became a knight of the Garter in 1463.
Sforza suffered from
hydropsy
and
gout
. In 1462, rumours spread that he was dead and a riot exploded in Milan. He however survived for four more years, finally dying in March 1466. He was succeeded as duke by his son,
Galeazzo Maria Sforza
.
Francesco's successor Ludovico commissioned
Leonardo da Vinci
to design an
equestrian statue
as part of a monument to Francesco I Sforza. A clay model of a horse which was to be used as part of the design was completed by Leonardo in 1492 ? but the statue was never built. In 1999 the horse alone was cast from Leonardo's original designs in bronze and placed in Milan outside the racetrack of Ippodromo del Galoppo.
Issue
[
edit
]
Francesco Sforza with his second wife Bianca Maria Visconti had:
- Galeazzo Maria
(24 January 1444 ? 26 December 1476), Duke of Milan from 1466 to 1476.
- Ippolita Maria
(18 April 1446 ? 20 August 1484), wife of
Alfonso II of Naples
and mother of
Isabella of Aragon
,
who was to marry Galeazzo's heir.
- Filippo Maria (12 December 1449 ? 1492), Count of Corsica.
- Sforza Maria (18 August 1451 ? 29 July 1479), Duke of Bari from 1464 to 1479.
- Francesco Galeazzo Maria (5 August 1453/54 ? died young).
- Ludovico Maria
(3 August 1452 ? 27 May 1508), Duke of Bari from 1479 to 1494 and Duke of Milan from 1494 to 1499.
- Ascanio Maria
(3 March 1455 ? 28 May 1505), Abbot of Chiaraville, Bishop of Pavia, Cremona, Pesaro, and Novara and Cardinal.
- Elisabetta Maria (10 June 1456 ? 1473), wife of
Guglielmo VIII Paleologo
, Margrave of Montferrat.
- Ottaviano Maria (30 April 1458 ? 1477), Count of Lugano, who drowned while escaping arrest.
Francesco Sforza also had an unspecified number (possibly 35) of illegitimate children.
Giovanna d'Acquapendente
, who was Francesco's official lover between the death of his first wife and his marriage to Bianca Maria Visconti, gave him 7 children including:
References
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]
Sources
[
edit
]
- Bartlett, Kenneth (2019).
The Renaissance in Italy: A History
. Hackett Publishing Company, Inc.
- Echols, Anne; Williams, Marty (1992).
An annotated index of medieval women
. Markus Wiener Publishing, Inc.
- Fallows, Noel (2010).
Jousting in Medieval and Renaissance Iberia
. The Boydell Press.
- Fletcher, Stella (2013).
The Longman Companion to Renaissance Europe, 1390-1530
. Routledge.
- Gregorovius, Ferdinand (1967).
History of the City of Rome in the Middle Ages
. Vol. 7. AMS Press.
- Ippolito, Antonio Menniti (1998).
"Francesco I Sforza, duca di Milano"
.
Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani
. Vol. 50. Treccani.
- Lucas, Henry S. (1960).
The Renaissance and the Reformation
. Harper Bros.: New York.
- Rendina, Claudio (1994).
I capitani di ventura
. Rome: Netwon Compton.
- Robin, Diana, ed. (2009).
Francesco Filelfo: Odes
. Harvard University Press.
- Ross, Charles (1997).
Edward IV
. Yale University Press.
ISBN
978-0-30007-371-3
.
- Walsh, Richard J. (2005).
Charles the Bold and Italy (1467-1477): Politics and Personnel
. Liverpool University Press.
- Vale, Malcolm (2022).
"England and Europe: England and Europe c.1450 - 1520: Nostalagia or New Opportunities?"
. In Clark, Linda (ed.).
The Fifteenth Century XIX: Enmity and Amity
. The Boydell Press.
ISBN
978-1-78327-742-1
.
- Williams, George L. (1998).
Papal Genealogy: The Families and Descendants of the Popes
. McFarland & Company, Inc.
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