Everything about Ludovico Sforza totally explained
Ludovico Sforza Duke of Milan (
Ludovico il Moro, "The Moor";
July 27,
1452 –
May 27,
1499), a member of the
Sforza dynasty of
Milan,
Italy, was the second son of
Francesco Sforza, and was famed as patron of
Leonardo da Vinci and other artists. It is said that he was called
il Moro because of his dark skinned
complexion. Some scholars believe that the name
Moro came from Ludovico's coat of arms, which contained the mulberry tree, but that's doubtful, as the Italian name for that tree is the feminine
mora rather than the masculine
moro. It should be noted that in Italian "moro", just like "bruno", is just the masculine equivalent of "
brunette" ("mora" in italian). So the
epithet most likely just refers to Ludovico's jet black hair.
Biography
Ludovico Sforza was born at
Vigevano, in what is now
Lombardy.
Ludovico married
Ercole I d'Este's youngest daughter
Beatrice d'Este in January 1491 in a double Sforza-Este marriage. Ludovico Sforza married Beatrice d'Este, while Beatrice's brother,
Alfonso d'Este, married
Anna Sforza, the sister of
Gian Galeazzo Sforza.
Leonardo da Vinci orchestrated the wedding celebration.
Beatrice and Alfonso’s sister,
Isabella d'Este (1475–1497) was married to
Francesco II Gonzaga, Marquess of Mantua.
Ludovico had many mistresses.
Cecilia Gallerani was Ludovico’s favorite mistress. She gave birth to his child, a son, in the same year as he married Beatrice d'Este. She is thought to be the subject of Leonardo da Vinci’s Lady with an Ermine. The ermine was the heraldic animal of Ludovico il Moro.
On the assassination of Ludovico's elder brother
Galeazzo in
1476, the crown passed to his seven-year-old nephew
Gian Galeazzo Sforza. Ludovico seized control of the government of Milan during Gian Galeazzo's minority despite attempts to keep him out of power. When he/she died in 1494, Ludovico received the ducal crown from the Milanese nobles on October 22
.
The same year, he simultaneously encouraged the French under
Charles VIII of France, and the
Holy Roman Emperor,
Maximilian I, to become involved in Italian politics, hoping to manipulate the two and reap the rewards himself—thus starting the
Italian Wars. Things didn't go as planned, and finding his own position endangered by the French, he joined the league against Charles VIII, giving his niece
Bianca in marriage to
Maximilian I and receiving in return imperial investiture of the duchy.
After first defeating the French at the
Battle of Fornovo in
1495 (making weapons from 70 tons of bronze originally intended for
a da Vinci statue), Ludovico was later driven from Milan by the new French king,
Louis XII in
1499. In
1500, Louis XII laid siege to the city of
Novara, where Ludovico was based. The armies of both sides included
Swiss mercenaries. The Swiss didn't want to fight each other and chose to leave Novara. Ludovico was handed over to the French in April 1500 and died as prisoner in the castle of Loches. The Swiss later executed a soldier from
Uri called Hans Turmann who had, they claimed, betrayed Ludovico for money.
The Swiss later restored the duchy of Milan to Ludovico's son,
Maximilian Sforza. His other son
Francesco II also held the Duchy of Milan for a short period;
Giovanni Paolo, another Ludovico's son, was a successful
condottiero and the first in the family line of the marquesses of
Caravaggio.
Further Information
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