Costanzo I of Sforza (5 July 1447 – 19 July 1483) was an Italian

condottiero Condottieri (; singular: ''condottiero'' or ''condottiere'') were Italian military leaders active during the Middle Ages and the early modern period. The term originally referred specifically to commanders of mercenary companies, derived from the ...

, lord of

Pesaro Pesaro (; ) is a (municipality) in the Italy, Italian region of Marche, capital of the province of Pesaro and Urbino, on the Adriatic Sea. According to the 2011 census, its population was 95,011, making it the second most populous city in the ...

and

Gradara Gradara is a town and ''comune'' in the Province of Pesaro e Urbino (Provincia di Pesaro e Urbino, PU), in the region of Marche in central Italy. It is 6 km from Gabicce Mare and Cattolica, 25 km from Rimini, 15 km from Pesaro and 33 ...

. He was the son of

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 condottier ...

, under whom he fought in his early years and from whom he inherited the lordship of Pesaro. He also received the lordship of Gradara from

Pope Alexander VI Pope Alexander VI (, , ; born Roderic Llançol i de Borja; epithet: ''Valentinus'' ("The Valencian"); – 18 August 1503) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 11 August 1492 until his death in 1503. Born into t ...

. He fought for various Italian states of the time, including the

Kingdom of Naples The Kingdom of Naples (; ; ), officially the Kingdom of Sicily, was a state that ruled the part of the Italian Peninsula south of the Papal States between 1282 and 1816. It was established by the War of the Sicilian Vespers (1282–1302). Until ...

and the

Papal States The Papal States ( ; ; ), officially the State of the Church, were a conglomeration of territories on the Italian peninsula under the direct sovereign rule of the pope from 756 to 1870. They were among the major states of Italy from the 8th c ...

. He married

Camilla d'Aragona Camilla may refer to: People * Camilla (given name), including a list of people with the name * Queen Camilla (b. 1947), wife of Charles III, king of the Commonwealth realms Characters * Camilla (mythology), daughter of King Metabus and Casmilla ...

but they had no children and so his illegitimate seventeen-year-old son Giovanni succeeded him in Pesaro, with Camilla initially ruling as regent.

References

1447 births 1483 deaths Costanzo 1 15th-century condottieri Lords of Pesaro {{Italy-mil-bio-stub