Early life Francesco Sforza was born in
Cigoli, near
San Miniato, Tuscany, one of the seven illegitimate sons of the
condottiero Muzio Sforza and Lucia de Martini. He was the brother of
Alessandro Sforza. He spent his childhood in
Tricarico (in the modern
Basilicata), the marquisate of which he was granted in 1412 by King
Ladislaus of Naples. In 1418, he married
Polissena Ruffo, a Calabrese noblewoman. From 1419, he fought alongside his father, soon gaining fame for being able to bend metal bars with his bare hands. He later proved himself to be an expert tactician and a very skilled field commander. After the death of his father during the
War of L'Aquila, he participated in
Braccio da Montone's final defeat in that campaign; he fought subsequently for the Neapolitan army and then for
Pope Martin V and the
Duke of Milan,
Filippo Maria Visconti. After some successes, he fell in disgrace and was sent to the castle of
Mortara as a prisoner. He regained his status after leading an expedition against
Lucca. In 1431, after fighting again for the
Papal States, he led the Milanese army against
Venice; the following year the duke's daughter,
Bianca Maria, was betrothed to him. Despite these moves, the wary Filippo Maria never ceased to be distrustful of Sforza. The allegiance of mercenary leaders was dependent, of course, on pay; in 1433–1435, Sforza led the Milanese attack on the Papal States, but when he conquered
Ancona, in
Marche, he changed sides, obtaining the title of vicar of the city directly from
Pope Eugene IV. In 1436–39, he served variously both in
Florence and Venice. (1823) In 1440, his fiefs in the
Kingdom of Naples were occupied by King
Alfonso I, and, to recover the situation, Sforza reconciled himself with Filippo Visconti. On 25 October 1441, he could finally marry Bianca Maria in
Cremona as part of the
agreements that ended the war between Milan and Venice. (Local legend apocryphally dates the origin of the city's famed
nougat to the wedding festivities.) The following year, he allied with
René of Anjou, pretender to the throne of Naples, and marched against southern Italy. After some initial setbacks, he defeated the Neapolitan commander Niccolò Piccinino, who had invaded his possessions in Romagna and Marche, through the help of
Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta (who had married his daughter
Polissena) and the Venetians, and could return to Milan. Sforza later found himself warring against
Francesco Piccinino (whom he defeated at the Battle of Montolmo in 1444) and, later, the alliance of Visconti, Eugene IV, and Malatesta, who had allegedly murdered Polissena. With the help of Venice, Sforza was again victorious and, in exchange for abandoning the Venetians, received the title of
capitano generale (commander-in-chief) of the Duchy of Milan's armies.
Duke of Milan After Filippo Maria Visconti, duke of Milan, died without a male heir in 1447, fighting broke out to restore the so-called
Ambrosian Republic. The name Ambrosian Republic takes its name from
St. Ambrose, the
patron saint of Milan.
Agnese del Maino, his wife's mother, convinced the condottiero who held
Pavia to restore it to him. He also received the seigniory of other cities of the duchy, including
Lodi, and started to carefully plan the conquest of the ephemeral republic, allying with
William VIII of Montferrat and (again) Venice. In 1450, after years of famine, riots raged in the streets of Milan and the city's
senate decided to entrust him with the duchy. Sforza entered the city as duke on 26 February. It was the first time that such a title was handed over by a lay institution. While the other Italian states gradually recognized Sforza as the legitimate Duke of Milan, he was never able to obtain official investiture from the
Holy Roman Emperor. That did not come to the Sforza Dukes until 1494, when
Emperor Maximilian formally invested Francesco's son,
Ludovico, as duke of Milan. Under his rule (which was moderate and skilful), Sforza modernised the city and duchy. He created an efficient system of taxation that generated enormous revenues for the government, his court became a centre of
Renaissance learning and culture, and the people of Milan grew to love him. In Milan, he founded the
Ospedale Maggiore, restored the
Palazzo ducale, and had the Naviglio d'Adda, a channel connecting with the
River Adda, built. During Sforza's reign, Florence was under the command of
Cosimo de' Medici and the two rulers became close friends. This friendship eventually manifested in first the
Peace of Lodi and then the
Italian League, a multi-polar defensive alliance of Italian states that succeeded in stabilising almost all of Italy for its duration. After the peace, Sforza renounced part of the conquests in eastern Lombardy obtained by his condottieri
Bartolomeo Colleoni,
Ludovico Gonzaga, and
Roberto Sanseverino d'Aragona after 1451. As King Alfonso I of Naples was among the signatories of the treaty, Sforza also abandoned his long support of the
Angevin pretenders to Naples. He also aimed to conquer
Genoa, then an Angevin possession; when a revolt broke out there in 1461, he had Spinetta Campofregoso elected as
Doge, as his puppet. Sforza occupied Genoa and
Savona in 1464. Sforza was the first European ruler to follow a foreign policy based on the concept of the
balance of power, and the first native Italian ruler to conduct extensive diplomacy outside the peninsula to counter the power of threatening states such as France. Sforza's policies succeeded in keeping foreign powers from dominating Italian politics for the rest of the century.
Edward IV of England sought to strengthen friendly relations with Sforza and accordingly offered him membership in the prestigious
Order of the Garter. He accepted and became a knight of the Garter in 1463. Sforza suffered from
hydropsy and
gout. In 1462, rumours spread that he was dead and a riot exploded in Milan. He however survived for four more years, finally dying in March 1466. He was succeeded as duke by his son,
Galeazzo Maria Sforza. Francesco's successor Ludovico commissioned
Leonardo da Vinci to design an
equestrian statue as part of a monument to Francesco I Sforza. A clay model of a horse which was to be used as part of the design was completed by Leonardo in 1492—but the statue was never built. In 1999 the horse alone was cast from Leonardo's original designs in bronze and placed in Milan outside the racetrack of Ippodromo del Galoppo. ==Marriage and issue==