Caterina Sforza

La dama dei gelsomini by Lorenzo di Credi
Portrait of Caterina Sforza.
Location: Museum of Forlì in Italy.

Caterina Sforza (1463 – May 10, 1509), countess of Forlì, was an illegitimate daughter of Galeazzo Maria Sforza, Duke of Milan and Lucrecia Landriani, wife of the courtesan Gian Piero Landriani.

Grown in the refined court of Milan, which in the 15th century was admired by all Europe, was a Lady of Imola and Forlì, first with her husband Girolamo Riario and later as regent of her first-born son Octaviano.

Descendant of a dynasty of famous condottieri, since a young age she distinguished herself for the bold and reckless actions that put in place to safeguard, by anyone, what possessed, both in terms of rights, as regards the military defense of her states, when they were involved in the political game of that time.

In her private life she was devoted to various activities, among which lead to "experiment" of alchemy and hunting.

Also, she was a careful, passionate and loving teacher for her many children, from whom only the last, the famous captain Giovanni dalle Bande Nere, inherited the passion for weapons and the leader spirit of the mother.

After a heroic resistance, she had to faced the winning fury of Cesare Borgia. Imprisoned in Rome, after having regained their freedom, she led a quiet life in Florence.

In the last years of her life, she confided to a monk: "If I could write all, would amaze the world".

Origin of her family

The family Sforza don't had ancient traditions of nobility. The founder of the family, Muzio, was one of the many sons of Giacomo Attendolo and Elisa de 'Petrascini, a rich peasant family in Cotignola. Muzio, at the age of thirteen, ran home with a stolen horse to his father and follow the soldiers of Boldrino da Panicale and, in a short time, he covered himself with glory in the service of the city of Perugia, that of Florence, and later in the armies of the Dukes d'Este and the King of Naples. The nickname "Sforza" he was given by the great condottiero Alberico da Barbiano after a battle where Muzio showed courage and recklessness.

Even his son Francesco Sforza follow his stepas as a distinguished condottiero, and was considered by a contemporary one of the bests. Thanks to his political skills was able to marry Bianca Maria, the only surviving -but illegitimate- daughter of Filippo Maria Visconti, last ruler of his family in the Duchy of Milan. Bianca Maria always followed her husband in his activities as condottiero and shared with him the political and administrative decisions. In her right as the last representative of the Visconti dynasty, Francesco could become Duke of Milan in 1450 when it appeared the crisis in the government's attempt to Aurea Republicca Ambrosiana.

Francesco and Bianca Maria became Lords of Milan, dedicated to beautify the city, increase the economic well-being of his habitants and to consolidate their fragile power.

Galeazzo Maria (Caterina's father), their firstborn and heir, wanted to follow the example of his father and grandfather, who then carried out a career military; however, he never catch the glory of his ancestors because was considered too impulsive and overbearing. Between a battles, he was devoted to hunting, travel, beautiful women and holidays with his friends.

Infancy in the court of Milan

It is believed that Caterina spent her first years of life with the family of her natural mother. The relationship between mother and daughter was never interrupted; in fact, Lucrecia followed the growth of Caterina and she was always next to her in the crucial moments of her life, even in her last years in the city of Florence.

Only after Galeazzo Maria became Duke of Milan in 1466 after the death of his father Francesco, ordered to be brought to court his four children: Carlo (born in 1461; later Count of Magenta), Caterina, Alessandro (born in 1465; later Lord of Francavilla) and Chiara (born in 1467; by her first marriage Countess dal Verme di Sanguinetto and Lady of Vigevano and by the secon Lady of Novi) all bore by Lucrezia. The children were entrusted to their paternal grandmother Bianca Maria and, subsequently, all adopted by Bona of Savoy, who became in Galeazzo Maria's second wife in 1468.

In the Sforza court, attended by writers and artists, Caterina and her siblings received, according to the customs of the time, an humanistic education. At that time, in the Italian courts, the girls of noble families were receiving the same education of her male siblings. In addition to Latin and readings imposed by teachers Caterina learned, in particular by the paternal grandmother, to be proud of the warrior past of her ancestors and never show fear to anybody, passionate even the use of arms and art of govern. From her adoptive mother recalled the maternal warmth and affection that Bona of Savoy poured over the children of her husband, confirmed by the correspondence between them after Caterina had left the Milan court.

The Duke's family has resided in Milan and Pavia that often stayed at Galliate or Cusago, where Galeazzo Maria devoted himself to hunting and where most likely Caterina learned her passion to hunt, who accompany her for the rest of her life.

Marriage

In 1473, she was betrothed to Girolamo Riario, a nephew (though rumors persisted that he was a son) of Pope Sixtus IV, who was thus able to regain possession of Imola, that city being made a fief of the Riario family. After a triumphal entry into Imola in 1477, Caterina Sforza went to Rome with her husband, who, with the help of the pope, wrested the lordship of Forlì from Francesco V Ordelaffi.

Riario, by means of many crimes for which his wife seems to have blamed him, succeeded in accumulating great wealth, and on the death of Sixtus in August 1484, he sent Caterina to Rome to occupy the Castel Sant'Angelo, which she defended gallantly until, on October 25, she surrendered it by his order to the Sacred College. They then returned to their fiefs of Imola and Forlì, where they tried to win the favour of the people by erecting magnificent public buildings and churches and by abolishing taxes, but want of money obliged them to levy the taxes once more, which caused dissatisfaction.

Riario's enemies conspired against him with a view to making Franceschetto Cybo, nephew of Pope Innocent VIII, lord of Imola and Forlì in his stead. Riario thereupon instituted a system of persecution against all whom he suspected of treachery. In 1488 he was murdered by three conspirators, his palace was sacked, and his wife and children were taken prisoner. The chief conspirators were members of the Orsis, a noble family of Forlì.

The citadel of Forlì, however, held out in Caterina's interest. The countess convinced the conspirators that if she were allowed to go to the citadel she would arrange for the governor to hand it over. Leaving her children as hostages she went to the citadel, but once inside she let loose a barrage of threats and promises of vengeance against her former captors. When they threatened to kill her children still in captivity she exposed her genitals from the castle walls and said that she didn't mind as she was still capable of bearing more. With the assistance of her uncle Ludovico il Moro, Duke of Milan, she was able to defeat her enemies and to regain possession of all her dominions; she wreaked vengeance on those who had opposed her and re-established her power.

As a widow she had several lovers, and by one of them, Giacomo Feo, whom she afterwards married, she had a son. Feo, who made himself hated for his cruelty and insolence, was murdered before the eyes of his wife in August 1495; Caterina had all the conspirators and their families, including the women and children, massacred. She established friendly relations with the new pope, Alexander VI, and with the Florentines, whose ambassador, Giovanni de' Medici il Popolano, she secretly married in 1496. Giovanni died in 1498, but Caterina managed with the aid of Ludovico il Moro and of the Florentines to save her dominions from the attacks of the Venetians.

Pope Alexander VI, however, angered at her refusal to agree to a union between his daughter Lucrezia Borgia and her son Ottaviano, and coveting her territories as well as the rest of Romagna for his son Cesare, issued a bull on March 9, 1499, declaring that the house of Riario had forfeited the lordship of Imola and Forlì and conferring those fiefs on Cesare Borgia.

The latter began his campaign of conquest with Caterina Sforza's dominions and attacked her with his whole army, reinforced by French troops and by Louis XII. Caterina placed her children in safety and took strenuous measures for defense. The castle of Imola was held by her henchman Dionigi Naldi of Brisighella, until resistance being no longer possible he surrendered in December 1499 with the honours of war. Caterina absolved the citizens of Forlì from their oath of fealty, and defended herself in the citadel. She repeatedly beat back the Borgia's onslaughts and refused all his offers of peace.

Finally, when her orders for the magazine to be blown up were ignored, Caterina surrendered after a battle in which large numbers were killed on both sides to Antoine Bissey, bailli of Dijon, entrusting herself to the honour of France (January 12, 1500). Thus her life was spared, but she was not saved from the outrages of the treacherous Cesare; she was afterwards taken to Rome and held a prisoner for a year in the Castel Sant'Angelo, whence she was liberated by the same bailli of Dijon to whom she had surrendered at Forlì.

She took refuge in Florence to escape from persecution from the Borgias, and the power of that sinister family having collapsed on the death of Alexander VI in 1503, she attempted to regain possession of her dominions. In this she failed owing to the hostility of his brother-in-law Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de' Medici and the latter's son Pierfrancesco, as they wished to get her son Ludovico (afterwards Giovanni dalle Bande Nere) into their hands. She took refuge with him in the convent of Annalena, where she remained until her death.

In her book The Warrior Queens: Boadicea's Chariot, British historian Antonia Fraser presents Caterina Sforza as a contrasting figure to her contemporary Isabella of Castile. Fraser points out that whilst the murders ordered by Caterina were no worse than the massacres ordered by Isabella, historians have been much harsher in their judgement of the former. Fraser accounts for this fact by pointing out that Isabella's actions were spiritually sanctioned, carried out in the name of Catholicism, whilst Caterina's were motivated by the personal, secular desire to preserve her property and rights.

See also

• House of Sforza

Sources

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)

• Machiavelli, The Discourses, English translation by Fr Leslie J. Walker, S.J. (1929). The countess is featured in Bk III, Ch 6 in relating examples of dangers that can arise subsequent to a successful conspiracy.