Caterina Sforza

Italian noblewoman

• Born: 1462 or 1463
• Birthplace: Duchy of Milan (now in Italy)
• Died: May 20, 1509
• Place of death: Convent of Annalena, Florence, Republic of Florence (now in Italy)

Caterina was a strong, dynamic, and intelligent woman who governed well in the Romagna region of Italy. Her political career was exemplary in demonstrating that virtue, in Machiavellian terms, was not reserved for men only.

Early Life

Caterina Sforza (SFAWRT-sah) was an illegitimate daughter of Galeazzo Maria Sforza, born before he became duke of Milan in 1466. She was reared in the Milanese court and given an excellent education. She preferred the active life over the study of books, however. In 1473, she was married to count Gerolamo Riario, the nephew of Pope Sixtus IV (Francesco Della Rovere). Riario was to become lord of the small but strategically important city of Imola in the Romagna region northeast of Rome.

Life’s Work

After being blessed by the pope in Rome, Caterina and her husband triumphantly entered Imola in 1477. In the following years, while living mostly at the Vatican, she gave birth to four children: Bianca, Ottaviano, Cesare, and Giovanni Livio. The young couple ruled the cities of Forlì and Imola, and they prospered because of their political and familial ties. Riario participated in several plots (notably, the Pazzi conspiracy, the goal of which was to remove the Medici brothers from Florence) and wars (namely the war against Ferrara, the aim of which was to destroy the Este Dynasty). Riario’s intentions with these activities was to enhance and enlarge his and Caterina’s sphere of power and influence in central Italy.

In August, 1484, the death of Sixtus IV changed their fortunes dramatically. Caterina, leading a small group of soldiers, held the greatest Roman fortress, Castel Sant’Angelo, for her husband until he reached a deal with the new pope, Innocent VIII (Giovanni Battista Cibò). Eventually, the couple moved to Romagna. The enemies of Count Riario, however, did not stay idle. In 1488, after a series of unsettling uprisings, some plotters secretly inspired by Lorenzo de’ Medici who wanted to avenge the death of his brother Giuliano managed to assassinate Gerolamo Riario. Caterina and her children were supposed to be their next victims, but she convinced the aggressors to release her, leaving the children as hostages. As soon as she reached the fortress of Forlì, according to the political philosopher Niccolò Machiavelli, she mockingly raised her skirts, exposed herself, and declared that she could have as many other children as she wanted. The plotters eventually surrendered and fled. With the help of her uncle Ludovico Sforza, who was acting as duke of Milan, and not her stepbrother Gian Galeazzo, she regained control over all the Romagna territories.

Caterina was then twenty-eight years old and a relatively independent ruler of a small but solid kingdom. She fell in love with the nineteen-year-old Giacomo Feo, the younger brother of one of her loyal military commanders. He was energetic but very arrogant and made a lot of enemies among the local aristocrats. Caterina and he became increasingly unpopular, especially after they raised taxes in order to maintain the army and their expensive lifestyle. In 1495, while the couple was riding in the streets of Forlì, Giacomo was attacked and stabbed to death. Caterina reacted violently and unleashed her fury onto the killers and their families.

The next year, the grain harvest was poor in the Tuscan lands. The Florentines sent an envoy to buy grain from Forlì and Imola. The envoy was the handsome and intelligent Giovanni de’ Medici . He was born into a minor branch of the great Medici family, which ruled Florence. Soon Caterina was in love again, and Giovanni loved her in return. A marriage between people from two such powerful dynasties, however, was likely to provoke opposition. Hence, they were wed in secret. Then, at age thirty-six, Caterina bore a son whom she named Giovanni, the last and most beloved of her children. Caterina’s eldest son, Ottaviano Riario, had grown into a lazy young man with great ambition and few abilities.

In 1498, Giovanni de’ Medici died of natural causes. The timing was unfortunate because Caterina was about to face the greatest threat of her life: the ambitions of Cesare Borgia, the son of Pope Alexander VI (Rodrigo Borgia). Cesare Borgia, duke of Valentinois, made famous by Machiavelli’s account of his deeds as the “model prince,” conquered all the major and minor cities in central Italy a plan that Caterina’s first husband had failed to realize. When Cesare finally captured Caterina, who had dared to mount some resistance to him, he took her to Rome as a trophy, abused her privately, shamed her publicly, and threw her into the dungeons of Castel Sant’Angelo, the same fortress she had once commanded and defended.

Eventually, the Borgia family fortune collapsed, and Caterina was freed, but she never was able to recover control of her cities in Romagna. She moved to Florence and took residence in the Convent of Annalena, where she died in May, 1509, at the age of forty-seven. She did not have the chance to see her last son, Giovanni, become one of the last and most celebrated Italian captains of arms, under the nickname of Giovanni delle Bande Nere (John of the Black Bands). He died in 1526, after having fathered Cosimo, who was eventually to become Cosimo I , or Cosimo the Great, the youngest duke of Florence (1537) and the first grand duke of Tuscany (1569).

Significance

Caterina Sforza, throughout her adventurous life, always gave proof of being a courageous, independent, and strong woman. Some contemporaries considered her “the first lady of our times,” and rightly so. She stood up against the killers of two of her companions and also against the most ruthless of all Renaissance princes, Cesare Borgia.

Her reputation as a virago (women warrior) did not prevent her from cultivating feminine interests, specifically in the make up and “magic” of rejuvenating potions. She avidly collected herbal recipes, in particular those that might preserve her health and beauty. Some of her balms and remedies are still recommended by doctors and studied by historians of medicine. She also enjoyed dancing, hunting, and all forms of physical activity. Finally, she was a patron of architecture. She enriched her cities with new buildings, creating beautiful gardens and public palaces.

Caterina’s offspring on the Medici side would lead very successful lives, especially her grandson Cosimo I de’ Medici, first grand duke of Tuscany. Her blood combined the fighting spirit of the Sforza Dynasty with the leadership skills of the Medici family. Ironically, the sons from her first marriage with Riario, who had tried to eliminate the Florentine rulers, ended up nameless and powerless.

Bibliography

Breisach, Ernst. Caterina Sforza: A Renaissance Virago. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1967. A fine biographical study, based on original sources and pleasantly narrated.

Hairston, Julia. “Skirting the Issue: Machiavelli’s Caterina Sforza.” Renaissance Quarterly 53, no. 3 (2000): 687-712. A reading of Machiavelli’s passages devoted to Caterina’s deeds.

Pasolini, Pietro Desiderio. Catherine Sforza. Translated by Paul Sylvester. London: W. Heinemann, 1893. The original full-length work on Sforza. A romantic vision of Sforza rich in documentation though overdramatized in tone.