Portrait of Francesco Sforza,
Duke of Milan
FRANCESCO SFORZA (San Miniato, 1401 – Milan 1466) – Duke of Milan
Son of Muzio Attendolo Sforza, captain of fortune, he was educated at the court of Ferrara together with the sons of Niccolò III d’Este and then joined his father in the wars between the states of the peninsula. At the head of one of the most powerful armies of the time, he was also in the service of Filippo Maria Visconti for twenty years. Upon his death in 1447, he fought against the Ambrosian Republic until defeating it in 1450, proclaiming himself Duke of Milan. As such it was opposed, among others, by the Republic of Venice and by Alfonso of Aragon, king of Naples, until the peace of Lodi in 1454, which put an end to the long wars of the previous decades and allowed Sforza to settle in Milan.
An example of the Renaissance homo novus, capable with his own ‘virtue’ of earning the principality and maintaining it – as Machiavelli wrote about him – he surrounded himself with expert collaborators up to the task, who contributed to the building of the Duchy of Milan as one of the most politically influential states of the time.