Francesco Sforza

Francesco Sforza was a pivotal figure in the state system of Italy in the 15th century. The son of a prominent condottiere, Muzio Attendolo Sforza, he inherited his father’s company of soldiers in 1424 and became one of the foremost condottieri of his time in his own right. In 1434 he took over much of the province of the Marche in the Papal States and held on as lord there until he was finally driven out in 1447, shortly before the death of his father-in-law, Filippo Maria Visconti, Duke of Milan. Although his relations with Visconti, before and after he married Visconti’s daughter, Bianca Maria, had often been bad, when Visconti died without legitimate heirs, Sforza claimed the dukedom. He had to conquer the duchy before he was accepted in Milan as duke in 1450. Despite the legitimacy of his rule continuing to be under question, Sforza became the most influential statesman in Italy, through the use of the impressive diplomatic network he built up rather than through military interventions. The records created and preserved by his efficient chancery constitute a major source for the history of Italy in the mid-15th century. References to him abound in the historiography of Renaissance Italy, but there are not a great many works focused on him, and only a few in English.