'' (), by
Justus van Gent or (and)
Pedro Berruguete Federico was born in
Castello di Petroia in
Gubbio.
Guidantonio da Montefeltro, lord of
Urbino, Gubbio and
Casteldurante, and Duke of
Spoleto acknowledged Federico as his illegitimate son. Two years later he was legitimized by
Pope Martin V, with the consent of Guidantonio's wife,
Caterina Colonna, who was Martin's niece. However, there were persistent rumours that Federico was not Guidantonio's son, but his grandson. Guidantonio had an illegitimate daughter named Aura, who, in 1420, married Bernardino Ubaldini della Carda, a captain in Guidantonio's employ. It was rumoured that, being without a son and heir at the time, Guidantonio took his daughter's firstborn son soon after birth and passed the child off as his own. This rumour was recorded by various commentators during Federico's lifetime, including Pope
Pius II. In the aftermath of the Peace of Ferrara (see
Wars in Lombardy) in 1433, he lived in Venice and
Mantua as a hostage. In 1437 he was knighted by Holy Roman Emperor
Sigismund, and in the same year, he married Gentile Brancaleoni in Gubbio. At sixteen, he began a career as
condottiero under
Niccolò Piccinino. In 1441 he distinguished himself in the conquest of the castle of St. Leo, which Federico was to hold for the rest of his life. After Piccinino's resignation, he went to Pesaro to defend it against his great enemy in the
Marche,
Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta, lord of
Rimini. On 22 July 1444, his half-brother
Oddantonio da Montefeltro, recently created
Duke of Urbino by
Pope Eugene IV, was assassinated in a conspiracy: Federico, whose participation in the plot has never been firmly established, subsequently seized the city of
Urbino. However, the financial situation of the small dukedom being in disarray, he continued to wage war as a condottiero. His first
condotta was for
Francesco I Sforza, with 300 knights: Federico was also one of the few condottieri of the time to have a reputation for inspiring loyalty among his followers. In the pay of the
Sforza—for Federico never fought for free—he transferred
Pesaro to their control, and, for 13,000
florins, received
Fossombrone as his share, infuriating Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta. Despite Federico's efforts, the Sforza sovereignty in the Marche was dismantled in the following years. When Sforza left for Lombardy, Sigismondo instigated a riot in Fossombrone, but Federico reconquered it three days later. , in an example of
Oriental carpets in Renaissance painting, 15th century After six years in the service of
Florence, Federico was hired in 1450 by Sforza, now Duke of Milan. However, he could not perform his duties as he lost his right eye during a tournament. Malatesta profited from his injury to obtain the position under Sforza, whereupon Federico in October 1451 accepted instead a proposal by
Alfonso V of Aragon,
King of Naples, to fight for him against Florence. After the loss of the eye, Federico – no stranger to conspiracies and one of the leaders that inspired
Niccolò Machiavelli to write
Il Principe – had
surgeons remove the bridge of his nose (which had been injured in the incident) and eyelid. This improved his
field of vision to a considerable extent, rendered him less vulnerable to assassination attempts – and, as can be seen by his successful career thereafter, restored his merits as a field commander. In 1453 the Neapolitan army was struck by malaria, and Federico himself risked losing his healthy eye. The
Peace of Lodi of the following year seemed to deprive him of occasions to exhibit his ability as a military commander. In 1458 the death of both Alfonso and of his beloved illegitimate son, Buonconte, did not help to raise Federico's mood. His fortunes recovered when
Pius II, a man of culture like him, became Pope and made him
Gonfaloniere of the Holy Roman Church. After some notable exploits in the Kingdom of Naples, he fought in the Marche against Malatesta, soundly defeating him at the
Cesano river near
Senigallia (1462). The following year he captured
Fano and Senigallia, taking Sigismondo Pandolfo prisoner. The Pope made him vicar of the conquered territories. In 1464 the new Pope
Paul II called him to push back the
Anguillara, from whom he regained much of the northern Lazio for Papal control. The following year he captured
Cesena and
Bertinoro in
Romagna. In 1466 Francesco Sforza died, and Federico assisted his young son
Galeazzo Sforza in the government of Milan, and also commanded the campaign against
Bartolomeo Colleoni. In 1467 he took part in the
Battle of Molinella. In 1469, on the death of Sigismondo Pandolfo, Paul sent him to occupy
Rimini: however, fearing that an excessive Papal power in the area could also menace his home base of Urbino, once having entered Rimini Federico kept it for himself. After defeating the Papal forces in a great battle on 30 August 1469, he ceded it to Sigismondo's son,
Roberto Malatesta. The matter was solved by the election of
Pope Sixtus IV, who married his favourite nephew
Giovanni Della Rovere to Federico's daughter Giovanna and gave him the title of Duke of Urbino in 1474; Malatesta married his other daughter Elisabetta. Now Federico fought against his former patrons the Florentines, caught in the Pope's attempt to carve out a state for his nephew
Girolamo Riario. In 1478, Federico was involved in the
Pazzi conspiracy; in the aftermath of the failed plot, he carried out attacks on the territory of
Lorenzo de' Medici. , the second wife of Federico. Portrait by
Piero della Francesca|212x212px However, after the death of his beloved second wife
Battista Sforza (daughter of Elisabetta Malatesta and
Alessandro Sforza), who died from pneumonia after giving birth to their seventh child at 25 years old, he spent much of his time in the magnificent palace in Urbino. The Duke had lost the mate he described as "the delight of my public and private hours"; a contemporary, speaking of their relationship, had called them two souls in one body. In 1482 he was called to command the army of
Ercole I of Ferrara in
his war against
Venice, but was struck by fever and died in Ferrara in September. Federico's son,
Guidobaldo, was married to
Elisabetta Gonzaga, the brilliant and educated daughter of
Federico I Gonzaga, lord of
Mantua. With Guidobaldo's death in 1508, the duchy of Urbino passed through Giovanna to the papal family of
Della Rovere—nephews of Guidobaldo. ==Achievements==