| Francesco I Sforza | |
|---|---|
 Portrait of Francesco Sforza (c. 1460) byBonifacio Bembo. Sforza insisted on being shown in his worn dirty old campaigning hat.Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan. | |
| Duke of Milan | |
| Reign | 25 March 1450 – 8 March 1466 |
| Predecessor | Golden Ambrosian Republic |
| Successor | Galeazzo Maria Sforza |
| Born | (1401-07-23)23 July 1401 Cigoli, San Miniato,Republic of Florence |
| Died | 8 March 1466(1466-03-08) (aged 64) Milan,Duchy of Milan |
| Spouse | |
| Issue among others | 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 |
| House | Sforza |
| Father | Muzio Attendolo Sforza |
| Mother | Lucia de Martini (Demartini) |
Francesco I SforzaKG (Italian:[franˈtʃeskoˈpriːmoˈsfɔrtsa]; 23 July 1401 – 8 March 1466) was an Italiancondottiero who founded theSforza dynasty in theduchy of Milan, ruling as its (fourth)duke from 1450 until his death. Renowned for his military skill and political acumen, he was among the few condottieri to successfully transform battlefield success into stable dynastic rule.
In the 1420s, he took part in theWar of L'Aquila, and during the 1430s he served both thePapal States and the Duchy of Milan in their conflicts againstVenice. Following thePeace of Cremona (1441), which he helped broker, Sforza marriedBianca Maria Visconti, daughter of DukeFilippo Maria Visconti, thus strengthening his claim to Milan. After a brief military campaign in southern Italy withRené of Anjou, he returned to Milan and seized control following the extinction of the Visconti line.
As duke, Sforza restored Milan's economic stability, improved the system ofirrigation canals, and restructured the bureaucracy. He played a leading role in the establishment of theTreaty of Lodi (1454), which created a lasting balance of power among theItalian states and ushered in a period of relative peace.
He died in 1466 and was succeeded by his son,Galeazzo Maria Sforza. Although Francesco ruled with broad recognition, it was not until 1494 that his other son,Ludovico Sforza, received formal investiture as Duke of Milan by EmperorMaximilian I.
Francesco Sforza was born inCigoli, nearSan Miniato, Tuscany, one of the seven illegitimate sons of thecondottieroMuzio Sforza[1] and Lucia de Martini.[2] He was the brother ofAlessandro Sforza. He spent his childhood inTricarico (in the modernBasilicata), the marquisate of which he was granted in 1412 by KingLadislaus of Naples. In 1418, he marriedPolissena Ruffo, a Calabrese noblewoman.[3]
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 theWar of L'Aquila, he participated inBraccio da Montone's final defeat in that campaign; he fought subsequently for the Neapolitan army and then forPope Martin V and theDuke of Milan,Filippo Maria Visconti. After some successes, he fell in disgrace and was sent to the castle ofMortara as a prisoner. He regained his status after leading an expedition againstLucca.
In 1431, after fighting again for thePapal States, he led the Milanese army againstVenice; the following year the duke's daughter,Bianca Maria, was betrothed to him.[1] 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 conqueredAncona, inMarche, he changed sides, obtaining the title of vicar of the city directly fromPope Eugene IV.[4] In 1436–39, he served variously both inFlorence and Venice.
In 1440, his fiefs in theKingdom of Naples were occupied by KingAlfonso I, and, to recover the situation, Sforza reconciled himself with Filippo Visconti. On 25 October 1441, he could finally marry Bianca Maria inCremona as part of theagreements that ended the war between Milan and Venice. (Local legend apocryphally dates the origin of the city's famedtorronenougat to the wedding festivities.)[5] The following year, he allied withRené of Anjou, pretender to the throne of Naples, and marched against southern Italy. After some initial setbacks, he defeated the Neapolitan commander Niccolò Piccinino, who had invaded his possessions in Romagna and Marche, through the help ofSigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta (who had married his daughterPolissena) and the Venetians, and could return to Milan.
Sforza later found himself warring againstFrancesco 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 ofcapitano generale (commander-in-chief) of the Duchy of Milan's armies.
After Filippo Maria Visconti, duke of Milan, died without a male heir in 1447, fighting broke out to restore the so-calledAmbrosian Republic.[6] The name Ambrosian Republic takes its name fromSt. Ambrose, thepatron saint of Milan.[6]Agnese del Maino, his wife's mother, convinced the condottiero who heldPavia to restore it to him.[7]
He also received the seigniory of other cities of the duchy, includingLodi, and started to carefully plan the conquest of the ephemeral republic, allying withWilliam VIII of Montferrat and (again) Venice. In 1450, after years of famine, riots raged in the streets of Milan and the city'ssenate 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 theHoly Roman Emperor. That did not come to the Sforza Dukes until 1494, whenEmperor Maximilian formally invested Francesco's son,Ludovico, as duke of Milan.[citation needed]
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 ofRenaissance learning and culture, and the people of Milan grew to love him. In Milan, he founded theOspedale Maggiore, restored thePalazzo ducale, and had the Naviglio d'Adda, a channel connecting with theRiver Adda, built.[citation needed]
During Sforza's reign, Florence was under the command ofCosimo de' Medici and the two rulers became close friends. This friendship eventually manifested in first thePeace of Lodi and then theItalian 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 condottieriBartolomeo Colleoni,Ludovico Gonzaga, andRoberto 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 theAngevin pretenders to Naples. He also aimed to conquerGenoa, then an Angevin possession; when a revolt broke out there in 1461, he had Spinetta Campofregoso elected asDoge, as his puppet. Sforza occupied Genoa andSavona in 1464.
Sforza was the first European ruler to follow a foreign policy based on the concept of thebalance 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 prestigiousOrder of the Garter.[8] He accepted and became a knight of the Garter in 1463.[9]
Sforza suffered fromhydropsy andgout. 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 commissionedLeonardo da Vinci to design anequestrian 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.
Francesco Sforza was married three times:
Francesco Sforza had several illegitimate children, some of whom were formally acknowledged.
With Giovanna d'Acquapendente, his official mistress between the death of his first wife and his marriage to Bianca Maria Visconti, he had at least seven children:
With Brigida Caimi:
With Elisabetta de Prata:
With Perpetua di Varese:
With Elisabetta da Robecco (also known as Elisabetta delle Grazie):
By unknown mothers:
| Vacant Title last held by Filippo Maria Visconti | Duke of Milan 1450–1466 | Succeeded by |
