Portrait of Francesco Sforza (c. 1460) by Bonifacio Bembo. Bonifacio Bembo (active between 1447 and 1477 was an Italian painter and miniaturist of the early- Renaissance period Sforza insisted on being shown in his worn dirty old campaigning hat. Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan. This article concerns the Milanese art gallery For the automobile see Alfa Romeo Brera.

Francesco I Sforza (July 23, 1401 - March 8, 1466) was an Italian condottiero, the founder of the Sforza dynasty in Milan, Italy. Events 1632 - Three hundred colonists bound for New France depart from Dieppe France. Events 1618 - Johannes Kepler discovers the third law of planetary motion. Condottieri (singular condottiero, rarely condottiero) were Mercenary leaders employed by the Italian City-states from the Late Middle Sforza was a ruling family of Renaissance Italy, based in Milan. Milan (Milano Milan (listen) is one of the largest cities in Italy, located in the plains of Lombardy. Italy (Italia officially the Italian Republic, (Repubblica Italiana is located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe, and on the two largest He was the brother of Alessandro, with whom he often fought. Alessandro Sforza ( October 21, 1409 - April 1473 was an Italian Condottiero and lord of Pesaro, the first of the Pesaro line of the Sforza

Biography

Early life

Francesco Sforza was born in San Miniato, Tuscany, one of the seven illegitimate sons of the condottiero Muzio Sforza and Lucia da Torsano. San Miniato is a town and commune in the Province of Pisa, in the region of Tuscany, Italy. Tuscany (Toscana is a region in Italy. It has an area of 22990 km² and a population of about 3 Muzio Attendolo Sforza ( May 28, 1369 - January 4, 1424) was an Italian Condottiero. He spent his childhood in Tricarico (in the modern Basilicata), the marquisate of which he had been granted in 1412 by King Ladislas of Naples. Tricarico ( Greek: Triakron is a town and Comune in the Province of Matera, in the Southern Italian region of Lucania (or Basilicata Basilicata is a region in the south of Italy, bordering on Campania to the west Apulia ( Puglia) to the east Calabria to Ladislas the Magnanimous (also spelled Ladislaus; July 14, 1376 / February 11, 1377 &ndash August 6 In 1418, he married Polissena Ruffo, a Calabrese noblewoman. Calabria ( Latin: Brutium) is a region in southern Italy, south of Naples, located at the "toe" of

From 1419, he fought alongside his father, soon gaining fame as being able to bend metal bars with his bare hands. He later proved himself to be an expert tactician and very skilled field commander. After the death of his father, he fought initially for the Neapolitan army and then for Pope Martin V and the duke of Milan, Filippo Maria Visconti. Pope Martin V (c 1368 &ndash February 20, 1431) born Odo (or The following is a list of rulers of Milan from the 13th century to 1859 when Milan and the rest of Lombardy were incorporated into the Kingdom of Filippo Maria Visconti, ( September 23, 1392 &ndash August 13, 1447) was ruler of Milan from 1412 to 1447 After some successes, he fell in disgrace and was sent to the castle of Mortara as a prisoner de facto. He regained his status after a successful expedition against Lucca. Lucca is a city in Tuscany, northern central Italy, situated on the river Serchio in a fertile plain near (but not on the Ligurian Sea

In 1431, after a period in which he fought 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. The Papal States, State(s of the Church or Pontifical States (in Italian Stato Ecclesiastico, Stato della Chiesa, Stati della Chiesa Venice ( Italian: Venezia, Venetian: Venesia or Venexia) is a city in Northern Italy, the capital of the Bianca Maria Visconti (born 31 March 1425 - 28 October 1468) was Duchess of Milan from 1450 to 1468 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 the Marche, he changed sides, obtaining the title of vicar of the city directly from Pope Eugene IV. Ancona (Ankon is a city and a seaport in the Marche, a region of central Italy, population 101909 (2005 The Marche (plural originally from le marche de Ancona, referring to the March of Ancona) is one of the 20 Regions of Italy. Pope Eugene IV (1383 &ndash February 23, 1447) born Gabriele Condulmer, was Pope from March 3, 1431, to his death In 1436-39, he served variously both Florence and Venice. Florence ( Italian: Firenze Florentia and Fiorenza) is the Capital City of the Italian region of Tuscany

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. The Kingdom of Naples was an informal name of the Polity officially known as the Kingdom of Sicily which existed on the mainland of the southern Italian Alfonso the Magnanimous (also Alphonso; Catalan: Alfons) (1396 &ndash 27 June 1458) was the King of Aragon (as On October 25, 1441, in Cremona, he could finally marry Bianca Maria. Events 1147 - The Portuguese, under Afonso I, and Crusaders from England and Flanders conquer Lisbon after a Cremonese redirects here For the football team see US Cremonese Cremona is a City in northern Italy, situated In the following year, he allied with René of Anjou, pretender to the throne of Naples, and marched against southern Italy. René of Anjou ( January 16, 1409 &ndash July 10, 1480) also known as René I of Naples and Good King René ( French After some initial drawbacks, he defeated the Neapolitan commander Niccolò 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. Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta ( June 19, 1417 &ndash October 7, 1468) popularly known as the Wolf of Rimini, was a famous member

Sforza later found himself warring against his son Francesco (whom he defeated at the Battle of Montolmo in 1444) and, later, the alliance of Visconti, Eugene IV, and Sigismondo 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.

Rise as Duke of Milan

After the duke died without a male heir in 1447, fighting broke out to restore the so-called Ambrosian Republic. The Golden Ambrosian Republic (Italian Aurea Repubblica Ambrosiana; 1447&ndash1450 was a short-lived government founded in Milan by members of the University of Sforza received the seigniory of several cities of the duchy, including Pavia and Lodi, and started to carefully plan the conquest of the ephemeral republic, allying with William VIII of Montferrat and (again) Venice. Pavia (pronounced Pavìa,) the ancient Ticinum, is a town and Comune of south-western Lombardy, northern Italy, 35 km south Lodi ( pronounced) is a town in Lombardy, Italy, on the right bank of the River Adda. William VIII Palaiologos ( July 19, 1420 - February 27, 1483) was the Marquess of Montferrat from 1464 until his death In 1450, after years of famine, riots raged in the streets of Milan and the city's senate decided to entrust to him the dukedom. 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 the official investiture from the Holy Roman Emperor. The Holy Roman Emperor (Römischer Kaiser or Römisch-Deutscher Kaiser Romanorum Imperator was the elected monarch ruling over the many varying numbers of states That did not come to the Sforza Dukes until 1494 when Emperor Maximilian formally invested Francesco's son Lodovico as Duke of Milan.

Under his rule (which was moderate and skillful), Sforza modernised the city and duchy. He created an efficient system of taxation that generated enormous revenues for the government, his court became a center of Renaissance learning and culture, and the people of Milan loved him. The Renaissance (from French Renaissance, meaning "rebirth" Italian: Rinascimento, from re- "again" and nascere In Milan, he founded the Ospedale Maggiore, restored the Palazzo dell'Arengo, and had the Naviglio d'Adda, a channel connecting to the Adda River, built. The Ospedale Maggiore, traditionally named Ca' Granda (ie Big House is a building in the center of Milan constructed to house one of the first community hospitals The Adda (Latin Abdua, or Addua) is a river in North Italy, a tributary of the Po.

During Sforza's reign over Milan, Florence was under the command of Cosimo de' Medici and the two rulers became close friends. Cosimo di Giovanni de' Medici (September 27 1389 &ndash August 1 1464 was the first of the Medici political dynasty de facto rulers of This friendship eventually manifested in 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. The Treaty of Lodi, also known as the Peace of Lodi or the Treaty of Venice was a peace agreement between Milan and Venice signed on April 9 After the peace, Sforza renounced part of the conquests in eastern Lombardy obtained by his condottieri Bartolomeo Colleoni, Ludovico Gonzaga, and Roberto Sanseverino after 1451. Bartolomeo Colleoni (c 1395/1400 &ndash November 2, 1475) was an Italian Condottiero. Ludovico II (or III of Gonzaga, also spelled Lodovico ( June 5, 1412 &ndash June 12, 1478) was the ruler of the Italian As King Alfonso of Naples was among the signatories of the treaty, Sforza also abandoned his long support of the Angevin pretenders to Naples. Angevin (ˈændʒəvɪn ( French, from Old French, from Medieval Latin Andegavinus from Andegavia Anjou, France) is the name applied 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 own puppet, of course. Genoa ( Genova, ˈdʒɛːnova in Italian; Zena in Genoese and Ligurian; Genua in Latin and archaically in English The Republic of Genoa ( Italy) was technically a Communal Republic in the early Middle Ages, but in actuality it was an Oligarchy ruled Sforza occupied Genoa and Savona until 1464. This article is about the Italian city For the small town of Savona Canada please see Savona British Columbia, or the village in the USA, see Savona

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. In International relations, a balance of power exists when there is parity or stability between competing forces Sforza's policies succeeded in keeping foreign powers from dominating Italian politics for the rest of the century.

Sforza suffered of hydropsy and gout. Oedema (or Edema in American English formerly known as dropsy or hydropsy, is the increase of Interstitial fluid in any organ &mdash swelling Gout (also called metabolic arthritis) is a disease created by a buildup of Uric acid. In 1462 rumours spread that he was dead and a riot exploded in Milan. He however survived for four years, dying in the March of 1466.

Culture

Francesco Sforza is mentioned several times in Niccolò Machiavelli's book The Prince; he is generally praised in that work for his ability to hold his country and as a warning to a prince not to use mercenary troops. Il Principe ( The Prince) is a political Treatise by the Florentine public servant and political theorist A mercenary is a person who takes part in an armed conflict who is not a national or a party to the conflict and is "motivated to take part in the hostilities essentially by

He was a moderate patron of the arts. The main humanist of his court was the writer Francesco Filelfo. Francesco Filelfo ( July 25, 1398 &ndash July 31, 1481) was an Italian Renaissance humanist.

See also

• Bianca Maria Visconti
• Condottieri
• Duchy of Milan
• Alessandro Sforza
• Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta
• Visconti-Sforza tarot deck

References

• Rendina, Claudio (1994). Bianca Maria Visconti (born 31 March 1425 - 28 October 1468) was Duchess of Milan from 1450 to 1468 Condottieri (singular condottiero, rarely condottiero) were Mercenary leaders employed by the Italian City-states from the Late Middle The Duchy of Milan was a state in northern Italy from 1394 to 1797 Alessandro Sforza ( October 21, 1409 - April 1473 was an Italian Condottiero and lord of Pesaro, the first of the Pesaro line of the Sforza Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta ( June 19, 1417 &ndash October 7, 1468) popularly known as the Wolf of Rimini, was a famous member The Visconti-Sforza tarot deck is the oldest known Tarot deck. I capitani di ventura. Netwon Compton.