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Sforza
The House of Sforza () was a ruling family of Renaissance Italy, based in Milan. They acquired the Duchy of Milan following the extinction of the Visconti family in the mid-15th century, Sforza rule ending in Milan with the death of the last member of the family's main branch in 1535. History The first son of Muzio Attendolo Sforza, Francesco I Sforza, married Bianca Maria (1425–1468) in 1441. She was the daughter and only heir of the last Duke of Milan, (Filippo Maria Visconti). He thus acquired the title of Duke of Milan (1450–1466), ruled Milan for 16 years, and made the Sforzas the heirs of the house of Visconti. The family also held the seigniory of Pesaro, starting with Muzio Attendolo's second son, Alessandro (1409–1473). The Sforza held Pesaro until 1512, after the death of Costanzo II Sforza. Muzio's third son, Bosio (1411–1476), founded the branch of Santa Fiora, who held the title of count of Cotignola; the Sforza ruled the small county of Santa Fiora i ...
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Francesco I Sforza
Francesco I Sforza (; 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 war between Milan and Venice ended in 1441 under mediation by Sforza, he successfully invaded southern Italy alongside René 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 Early life Francesco Sforza was born in San Miniato, Tuscany, ...
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Golden Ambrosian Republic
, it, Aurea Repubblica Ambrosiana , era = Late Middle Ages , government_type = Directorial republic , p1 = Duchy of Milan , flag_p1 = Flag of the Duchy of Milan (1450).svg , s1 = Duchy of Milan , flag_s1 = Flag of the Duchy of Milan (1450).svg , image_map = Golden Ambrosian Republic.jpg , year_start = 1447 , year_end = 1450 , image_flag = Flag of the Golden Ambrosian Republic.svg , capital = Milan , common_languages = Lombard , religion = Catholic Church , currency = Soldo , leader1 = Mains of the 12 members: * Bishop Antonio Trivulzio * Carlo Gonzaga of Milan * Vitaliano I Borromeo , year_leader1 = 1447–1450 , title_leader = Captains and Defenders of the Freedom , legislature = Parish Assembly The Golden Ambrosian ...
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Bianca Maria Visconti
Bianca Maria Visconti (31 March 1425 – 28 October 1468) was Duchess of Milan from 1450 to 1468 by marriage to Francesco I Sforza. She was regent of Marche during the absence of her spouse in 1448. She served as Regent of the Duchy of Milan during the illness of her spouse in 1462, as well as in 1466, between the death of her spouse and until her son, the new Duke, who was absent, was able to return to Milan to assume power. Biography Early years Born near Settimo Pavese, Bianca Maria was the illegitimate daughter of Filippo Maria Visconti, Duke of Milan and last of the Visconti rulers, and Agnese del Maino. Agnese was the daughter of Ambrogio del Maino, a Milanese nobleman and ducal questore. Agnese served as Lady-in-Waiting to Filippo's wife, Beatrice di Tenda. The couple had a second daughter, called Caterina Maria or Lucia Maria, also born in Settimo in 1426, but she died shortly after her birth. When she was six months old, Bianca Maria and her mother were sent to a cas ...
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Muzio Sforza
Muzio Attendolo Sforza (28 May 1369 – 4 January 1424), was an Italian ''condottiero''. Founder of the Sforza dynasty, he led a Bolognese-Florentine army at the Battle of Casalecchio. He was the father of Francesco Sforza, who ruled Milan for 16 years. Biography He was born as Giacomo or Jacopo Attendolo in Cotignola (Romagna) to a rich family of rural nobility, son of Giovanni Attendolo (d. 1385/1386) and Elisa, perhaps daughter of Ugolino Petraccini. Muzzo or Muzio was the short form of the nickname of Giacomuzzo, which was the name of his paternal grandfather.''Genealogy of the House of Sforza'' in: genmarenostrum.com
etrieved 8 January 2015
He ...
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Muzio Attendolo Sforza
Muzio Attendolo Sforza (28 May 1369 – 4 January 1424), was an Italian ''condottiero''. Founder of the Sforza dynasty, he led a Bolognese-Florentine army at the Battle of Casalecchio. He was the father of Francesco Sforza, who ruled Milan for 16 years. Biography He was born as Giacomo or Jacopo Attendolo in Cotignola (Romagna) to a rich family of rural nobility, son of Giovanni Attendolo (d. 1385/1386) and Elisa, perhaps daughter of Ugolino Petraccini. Muzzo or Muzio was the short form of the nickname of Giacomuzzo, which was the name of his paternal grandfather.''Genealogy of the House of Sforza'' in: genmarenostrum.com
etrieved 8 January 2015
He ...
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Duke Of Milan
The following is a list of rulers of Milan from the 13th century to 1814, after which it was incorporated into the Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia by the Congress of Vienna. Before elevation to duchy Until 1259, Milan was a free commune that elected its own ''podestà''. The Torriani family gained sustained power in 1240, when Pagano Della Torre was elected ''podestà''. After Pagano's death, Baldo Ghiringhelli was elected ''podestà'' in 1259, but at the end of his tenure Martino della Torre, Pagano's nephew, perpetrated a coup d'état, seizing of power of his family over the commune, establishing the first '' Signoria'' (Italian for "Lordship") of Milan. During their tenure, the Torriani family, aligned with French Charles of Anjou, started a strong rivality with Visconti family, loyal to the German Hohenstaufen. In 1262, Pope Urban IV appointed Ottone Visconti as Archbishop of Milan, to Martino della Torre's disappointment. In 1273, a civil war started between the two f ...
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Visconti Of Milan
The Visconti of Milan are a noble Italian family. They rose to power in Milan during the Middle Ages where they ruled from 1277 to 1447, initially as Lords then as Dukes, and several collateral branches still exist. The effective founder of the Visconti Lordship of Milan was the Archbishop Ottone, who wrested control of the city from the rival Della Torre family in 1277. Origins The earliest members of the Visconti lineage appeared in Milan in the second half of the 11th century. The first evidence is on October 5, 1075, when Ariprando Visconti and his son Ottone ("Ariprandus Vicecomes", "Otto Vicecomes filius Ariprandi") attended and signed together some legal documents in Milan. Ariprando Visconti's family is believed to have pre-existed in Milan and obtained the title of viscount, which became hereditary throughout the male descent. In the years following 1075, Ottone Visconti is shown in the proximity of the Salian dynasty's sovereigns, Henry IV and his son Conrad. Hi ...
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Francesco II Sforza
Francesco II Sforza (February 4, 1495 – November 2, 1535) was Duke of Milan from 1521 until his death. He was the last member of the Sforza family to rule Milan. He was the second son of Ludovico Sforza and Beatrice d'Este. When Ludovico was ousted from Milan in the course of the Italian Wars, he brought Francesco with him to the court of the Emperor Maximilian I, who had married a Sforza, Francesco's cousin Bianca Maria. Francesco was assigned to an ecclesiastical career. His father was imprisoned in Loches by Louis XII of France, and died in 1508, but when Charles V re-conquered Milan from the French in 1521, Francesco was appointed its duke, the last of the family to hold that title. His sovereignty, however, remained circumscribed by the military occupation of Milan by Spanish troops.Schulin p. 151 He returned to his state, depleted by twenty years of combat, promoting a cultural and economic recovery. Francesco fought at the Battle of Bicocca, on the side of th ...
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Duchy Of Milan
The Duchy of Milan ( it, Ducato di Milano; lmo, Ducaa de Milan) was a state in northern Italy, created in 1395 by Gian Galeazzo Visconti, then the lord of Milan, and a member of the important Visconti family, which had been ruling the city since 1277. At that time, it included twenty-six towns and the wide rural area of the middle Padan Plain east of the hills of Montferrat. During much of its existence, it was wedged between Savoy to the west, Venice to the east, the Swiss Confederacy to the north, and separated from the Mediterranean by Genoa to the south. The duchy was at its largest at the beginning of the 15th century, at which time it included almost all of what is now Lombardy and parts of what are now Piedmont, Veneto, Tuscany and Emilia-Romagna. Under the House of Sforza, Milan experienced a period of great prosperity with the introduction of the silk industry, becoming one of the wealthiest states during the Renaissance. From the late 15th century, the Duchy of ...
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Lucrezia Borgia
Lucrezia Borgia (; ca-valencia, Lucrècia Borja, links=no ; 18 April 1480 – 24 June 1519) was a Spanish-Italian noblewoman of the House of Borgia who was the daughter of Pope Alexander VI and Vannozza dei Cattanei. She reigned as the Governor of Spoleto, a position usually held by cardinals, in her own right. Her family arranged several marriages for her that advanced their own political position including Giovanni Sforza, Lord of Pesaro and Gradara, Count of Cotignola; Alfonso of Aragon, Duke of Bisceglie and Prince of Salerno; and Alfonso I d'Este, Duke of Ferrara. Tradition has it that Alfonso of Aragon was an illegitimate son of the King of Naples and that her brother Cesare Borgia may have had him murdered after his political value waned. Rumors about her and her family cast Lucrezia as a '' femme fatale'', a role in which she has been portrayed in many artworks, novels and films. Early life Lucrezia Borgia was born on 18 April 1480 at Subiaco, near Rome. Her m ...
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Costanzo II Sforza
Giovanni Maria Sforza ( Gradara, 24 February 1510 – 1512), also known as Costanzo II, was the Lord of Pesaro from his father's death in 1510 until his own death at a young age in 1512. He was the only son of Giovanni Sforza, Lord of Pesaro, and his third wife, Ginevra Tiepolo. Giovanni Sforza had been the first husband of Lucrezia Borgia, but their marriage was annulled in 1497 by her father, Pope Alexander VI, on the grounds of supposed non-consummation and the alleged impotence of the groom. In 1504, Giovanni Sforza married Ginevra Tiepolo, a marriage that produced a male heir in 1510. However, Giovanni Maria became fatherless a few months after his birth, when his father died on 27 July 1510. Upon Giovanni Sforza's death, Giovanni Maria became the Lord of Pesaro, under the name of Costanzo II. Since he was an infant, his paternal uncle served as regent. Costanzo II died in 1512, legally making the heir to his estate his paternal uncle. However, Pope Julius II decided to r ...
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Alessandro Sforza
Alessandro Sforza (21 October 1409 – 3 April 1473) was an Italian condottiero and lord of Pesaro, the first of the Pesaro line of the Sforza family. Biography He was born in Cotignola in 1409, an illegitimate son of the famous condottiero Muzio Attendolo Sforza. Alessandro collaborated actively with his brother Francesco in his military campaign, and with him he conquered Milan, Alessandria and Pesaro. In 1435, at Fiordimonte, he won the battle in which the riotous Niccolò Fortebraccio was killed. In 1442 at Assisi he commanded the troops besieged by Pope Eugene IV's condottiero Francesco Piccinino. He was forced to leave the city, abandoning the city to ravages and massacres. In 1444 he obtained the lordship of Pesaro by Galeazzo Malatesta. Here he enlarged the Ducal Palace to conform it to the Renaissance standards. During the Wars in Lombardy in support of Francesco he presided Parma and, in February 1446, he proclaimed himself lord of the city. After Francesco's ...
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