Caterina Sforza was an Italian noblewoman and Countess of Forlì and Lady of Imola firstly with her husband Girolamo Riario, and after his death as a regent of her son Ottaviano.
Background
Caterina Sforza was born in Milan in early 1463. Caterina was the illegitimate daughter of Galeazzo Maria Sforza, Duke of Milan and Lucrezia, the wife of the courtier Gian Piero Landriani, a close friend of the Duke. It's believed that she spent the first years of her life with her mother's relatives. The bond between mother and daughter was never interrupted: in fact, Lucrezia followed Caterina's growth and was always close to her in the crucial moments of her life, even in the last few years that she spent in the city of Florence.
Upon the succession of Galeazzo Maria Sforza as Duke of Milan in 1466, following the death of his father Francesco, Galeazzo arranged for his four children by Lucrezia Landriani to come to court: 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, she became Countess dal Verme di Sanguinetto and Lady of Vigevano; by her second marriage, she became Lady of Novi). The children were entrusted to their paternal grandmother, Bianca Maria Visconti. In 1466 Galeazzo had married Dorotea Gonzaga, but after her death he remarried to Bona of Savoy on 9 May 1468, who eventually adopted them all.
Education
At the Sforza court, frequented by writers and artists, Caterina and her siblings received a humanistic education. At that time, in the Italian courts, daughters of noble families received the same education as their brothers. In addition to Latin and the reading of the classics, as prescribed by her teachers, Caterina learned, especially from her paternal grandmother, to take pride in her warlike ancestors, to show boldness in the use of arms and astuteness in the skill of government.
The Duke's family resided in Milan and in Pavia, and often stayed at Galliate or at Cusago, where Galeazzo Maria devoted himself to hunting. At one or the other of the two places Caterina also probably acquired her lifelong passion for hunting.
Career
In 1473 she was betrothed to Girolamo Riario, 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 Forli from the Ordelafii. 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 castle of St Angelo, which she defended gallantly until, on the 25th of October, she surrendered it by his order to the Sacred College. They then returned to their flefs of Imola and Forli, 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 Forli in his stead. Riario thereupon instituted a system of persecution, in which Caterina was implicated, 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 prisoners. The castle of Forli, however, held out in Caterina's interest, and every inducement and threat to make her order its surrender proved useless; having managed to escape from her captors she penetrated into the castle, whence she threatened to bombard the city, refusing to come to terms even when the besiegers threatened to murder her children. With the assistance of Lodovico il Moro 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. Being now 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 Flcirentines, whose ambassador, Giovanni de' Medici, she secretly married in 1496. Giovanni died in 1498, but Caterina managed with the aid of Lodovico il Moro and of the Florentines to save her dominions from the attacks of the Venetians. 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 the 9th of March 1499, declaring that the house of Riario had forfeited the lordship of Imola and Forli 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 14, 000 French troops and by Louis XII. Caterina placed her children in safety and took strenuous measures for defence. The castle of Imola was held by her henchman Dionigi Naldi of Brisighella, until resistance being no longer possible he surrendered (December 1499) with the honours of war. Caterina absolved the citizens of Forli 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 the situation had become untenable and having in vain given orders for the magazine to be blown up, she 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). 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 castle of St Angelo, whence she was liberated by the same bailli of Dijon to whom she had surrendered at F orli. 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 1 5o3, she attempted to regain possession of her dominions. In this she failed owing to the hostility of her brothers-in-law, Pierfrancesco and Lorenzo de' Medici, and as they wished to get her son Giovanni de' Medici (afterwards Giovanni dalle Bande Nere) into their hands, she took refuge with him in the convent of Annalena, where she died on the 20th of May 1509.
Achievements
Sandro Botticelli was charmed by Caterina, so he often depicted her face in his paintings.
Caterina is the subject of Scarlet Contessa, a historical novel by Jeanne Kalogridis, pub. 2010.
Caterina Sforza appears as a minor character in the 2009 historically-set video game Assassin's Creed II and its novelization, Assassin's Creed: Renaissance. She plays a larger role in "The Battle of Forlì" downloadable content pack, wherein she is aided in the titular battle by the game's protagonist Ezio Auditore. Caterina also appears in the 2010 sequel game Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood and its novelization, as a sometime love interest to Ezio Auditore. Three missions are dedicated to Ezio rescuing her from her imprisonment in the Castel Sant'Angelo.
A fictionalised account of Caterina Sforza's capture by Cesare Borgia features in Sarah Dunant's 2013 novel Blood & Beauty.
Views
Quotations:
"Fortune helps the intrepid and abandons the cowards. I am the daughter of a man who did not know of fear. Whatever may come, I am resolved to follow that course until death. "
"I bend my knee to no man. Unless I choose to. "
"If I were to write the story of my life, I would shock the world. "
"If I have to lose, although I am a woman, I want to lose in a manly way. "
Interests
In her private life Caterina was devoted to various activities, among which were experiments in alchemy and a love of hunting and dancing.
Connections
In 1473 Caterina became betrothed to Girolamo Riario, the son of Paolo Riario and Bianca della Rovere, sister of Pope Sixtus IV (in office: 1471-1484). Caterina replaced her cousin, the eleven-year-old Costanza Fogliani, as Girolamo's bride because, according to some historians, Costanza's mother Gabriella Gonzaga (illegitimate daughter of Marquis Ludovico III of Mantua) refused to allow the consummation of the marriage until Costanza reached the legal age — then fourteen — while Caterina, although only ten years old at that time, agreed with the demands of the groom; other sources instead reported that the marriage of Caterina and Girolamo was celebrated on 17 January 1473, but consummated four years later (1477) when Caterina reached the age of fourteen, without giving further details about the broken betrothal with Costanza.
Pope Sixtus IV gave Girolamo the Lordship of Imola, already a Sforza city, but at the time a fief of the Riario family. After a triumphal entrance into Imola in 1477, Caterina went to Rome with her husband, where he lived for many years in the service of his uncle, the Pope.
Two months after the death of Girolamo, a rumor was spread that Caterina was close to marrying Antonio Maria Ordelaffi, who had started to court her. This marriage would end the claims of the Ordelaffi family on the city of Forlì. Antonio Maria, feeling confident, wrote to the Duke of Ferrara that the Countess promised to marry him. When Caterina saw how things stood, she imprisoned those who had spread the false news.
In point of fact, Caterina had fallen in love with Giacomo Feo, the brother of Tommasso Feo, the castellan who had remained faithful to her after the assassination of her husband. Caterina married him in 1488, but secretly, to avoid losing custody of her children and the regency of her dominions.
All the contemporary chronicles reported that Caterina was madly in love with the young Giacomo. It was feared that she could strip her son Ottaviano of his future lordship, in order to give it to her lover and secret husband.
Giacomo was appointed castellan of the fortress of Ravaldino in place of his brother, and was awarded with an order of chivalry from Ludovico il Moro. In April 1489, Caterina gave birth to Giacomo's son, Bernardino, later called Carlo in honour of King Charles VIII, who had made Giacomo a baron of France. Also, she had replaced the castellans of the fortresses of her dominions with her closest relatives: the fortress of Imola was given to Gian Piero Landriani, her stepfather, and the fortress of Forlimpopoli to Piero Landriani, her half-brother, while Tommaso Feo was married to Bianca Landriani, Caterina's half-sister.
At Tossignano, a conspiracy was formed to seize the fortress in the name of Ottaviano, and murder both Giacomo and Caterina. The Countess discovered the plot and imprisoned or executed those who were involved. Immediately after this conspiracy was foiled, another plot was organized by Antonio Maria Ordelaffi, who had never become resigned to the loss of Forlí, but this also failed.
Giacomo's power increased, and with his cruelty and insolence he incurred the hatred of all, including Caterina's children. On one occasion, in full view of the public, he slapped Ottaviano (the rightful Lord of Forlì), but nobody had the courage to defend the boy. After this incident, adherents of Ottaviano decided to liberate the city from the domination of Giacomo Feo.
Gian Antonio Ghetti and some of Caterina's own children formed a conspiracy. On the evening of 27 August 1495, Caterina, Giacomo Feo, and their entourage were returning from a hunt. Caterina, her daughter Bianca Riario and some of her ladies-in-waiting rode in a carriage, followed on horseback by Giacomo, Ottaviano and his brother Cesare, and many staffieri and soldiers. Agents of the conspiracy attacked and mortally wounded Giacomo. The same day, Ghetti went to Caterina, thinking that she had secretly given the order to kill Giacomo. Caterina was unaware of the plot, and her revenge was terrible. When her first husband was murdered, she avenged his death according to the justice of the time; now she reacted with vindictive fury. Caterina was not satisfied with mere executions: their deaths had to be among the most cruel and painful. She not only prosecuted the wives and mistresses of the conspirators, but she also sought out the children, even those in early infancy, and all were summarily tortured and executed.
Caterina's fury blinded her to the politics that had inspired the plot. It had involved almost all the supporters of Ottaviano Riario, who were convinced that Caterina had given her tacit consent to the killing of the man who was considered the "usurper" of the state's rightful ruler. They had wanted to uphold the power of the Riario family. Caterina, as a result of the massacre which followed the assassination of Giacomo Feo, lost forever the good will of her people.
In 1496, the ambassador of the Republic of Florence, Giovanni de' Medici il Popolano, paid a visit to Caterina. The second son of Pierfrancesco il Vecchio, he belonged to a collateral branch of the Medici family. Along with his older brother Lorenzo, he had been sent into exile because of his open hostility toward their cousin Piero, who succeeded his father Lorenzo il Magnifico in the government of Florence. In 1494, when Charles VIII invaded Italy, Piero was forced to sign a treaty which allowed the French army to move freely into the Kingdom of Naples. The people of Florence were liberated, deposed Piero and proclaimed a Republic. Giovanni and his brother were able to return to their homeland. They renounced the Medici surname and took the name of Popolano. The Florentine government appointed Giovanni as ambassador to Forlì.
Shortly after coming to Forlì, Giovanni and his entourage were housed in the apartments adjacent to Caterina's in the fortress of Ravaldino. The rumours of a possible marriage between Giovanni and Caterina and that Ottaviano Riario accepted the post of Condottiero from Florence threatened by the Venetians, alarmed all the lords of the League and the Duke of Milan.
Caterina couldn't hide her wedding plans and her own feelings from her uncle Ludovico; she truly fell in love with the handsome, charming, and intelligent Giovanni. The situation differed from the previous one as this time Caterina had the approval of her children and she also obtained the consent of her uncle. The marriage of two people from such powerful families, however, was likely to arouse opposition, so they were wed in secret in September 1497.
From her first marriage with Girolamo Riario, Caterina had six children.
From her second marriage with Giacomo Feo, Caterina had one son:
Bernardino.
From her third marriage to Giovanni de' Medici, Caterina had one son:
Ludovico.
Father:
Galeazzo Maria Sforza
He was the fifth Duke of Milan from 1466 until his death. He was famous for being lustful, cruel and tyrannical.
Mother:
Lucrezia Landriani
She was the mistress of Galeazzo Maria Sforza, Duke of Milan. Lucrezia had three other children by the Duke, and two by her husband.
Third husband:
Giovanni il Popolano
He was an Italian nobleman of the Medici House of Florence.
Second husband:
Giacomo Feo
The chronicles and diplomatic dispatches of the period reported that Sforza was very enamored with Feo, and it was feared that she would give political precedence and power to him, passing over her eldest son and Riario's heir, Ottaviano.
Daughter:
Bianca Riario
She was born in 1478 and died after 1522.
Son:
Ottaviano Riario
He was born in September 1479 and died in 1523.
Son:
Giovanni Livio
He was born in Forlì, in October 1484 and died in 1496.
Son:
Ludovico
He was born in April 1498 and died in November 1526.
Son:
Francesco, called "Sforzino"
He was born in April 1489 and died in 1509.
Son:
Cesare
Born in August 1480, he was an Archbishop of Pisa and Patriarch of Alexandria.
Son:
Galeazzo Maria
He was born in 1485 and died in 1557.
First husband:
Girolamo Riario
He took part in the 1478 Pazzi Conspiracy against the Medici, and was assassinated 10 years later by members of the Forlesian Orsi family.
