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SFORZA, CATERINA (1463-1509)

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Originally appearing in Volume V24, Page 757 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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SFORZA, CATERINA (1463-1509) , countess of Forli, was an illegitimate daughter of Galeazzo Maria Sforza (see above). In 1473 she was betrothed to See also:Girolamo Riario, a son of See also:Pope See also:Sixtus IV., who was thus able to regain See also:possession of See also:Imola, that See also:city being made a See also:fief of the Riario See also:family. After a triumphal entry into Imola in 1477 Caterina Sforza went to See also:Rome with her See also:husband, who, with the help of the pope, wrested the lordship of Forli from the Ordelaffi. Riario, by means of many crimes, for which his wife seems to have blamed him, succeeded in accumulating See also:great See also:wealth, and on the See also:death of Sixtus in See also:August 1484, he sent Caterina to Rome to occupy the See also:castle of St Angelo, which she defended gallantly until, on the 25th of See also:October, she surrendered it by his See also:order to the Sacred See also:College. They then returned to their fiefs of Imola and Forli, where they tried to win the favour of the See also:people by erecting magnificent public buildings and churches and by abolishing taxes; but want of See also:money obliged them to See also:levy the taxes once more, which caused dissatisfaction. Riario's enemies conspired against him with a view to making Franceschetto Cybo, See also:nephew of Pope See also:Innocent VIII., See also:lord of Imola and Forli in his See also:stead. Riario thereupon instituted a See also:system of persecution, in which Caterina was implicated, against all whom he suspected of treachery. In 1488 he was murdered by three conspirators, his See also:palace was sacked, and his wife and See also:children were taken prisoners. The castle of Forli, however, held out in Caterina's See also:interest, and every inducement and See also:threat to make her order its surrender proved useless; having managed to See also:escape from her captors she penetrated into the castle, whence she threatened to See also:bombard the city, refusing to come to terms even when the besiegers threatened to See also:murder her children. With the assistance of Lodovico it See also:Moro she was able to defeat her enemies and to regain possession of all her dominions; she wreaked vengeance on those who had opposed her and re-established her See also:power. Being now a widow she had several lovers, and by one of them, Giacomo Feo, whom she afterwards married, she had a son. Feo, who made himself hated for his See also:cruelty and insolence, was murdered before the eyes of his wife in August 1495; Caterina had all the conspirators and their families, including the See also:women and children, massacred.

She established friendly relations with the new pope, See also:

Alexander VI., and with the Florentines, whose See also:ambassador, Giovanni de' See also:Medici, she secretly married in 1496. Giovanni died in 1498, but Caterina managed with the aid of Lodovico it Moro and of the Florentines to See also:save her dominions from the attacks of the Venetians. Alexander VI., however, angered at her refusal to agree to a See also:union between his daughter Lucrezia See also:Borgia and her son Ottaviano, and coveting her territories as well as the See also:rest of Romagna for his son Cesare, issued a See also:bull on the 9th of See also:March 1499, declaring that the See also:house of Riario had forfeited the lordship of Imola and Forli and conferring those fiefs on Cesare Borgia. The latter began his See also:campaign of See also:conquest with Caterina Sforza's dominions and attacked her with his whole See also:army, reinforced by 14,000 See also:French troops and by See also:Louis XII. Caterina placed her children in safety and took strenuous See also:measures for See also:defence. The castle of Imola was held by her henchman Dionigi Naldi of Brisighella, until resistance being no longer possible he surrendered (See also:December 1499) with the honours of See also:war. Caterina absolved the citizens of Forli from their See also:oath. of fealty, and defended herself in the citadel. She repeatedly See also:beat back the Borgia's onslaughts and refused all his offers of See also:peace. Finally when the situation had become untenable and having in vain given orders for the See also:magazine to be blown up, she surrendered, after a See also:battle in which large See also:numbers were killed on both sides, to See also:Antoine Bissey, bailli of See also:Dijon, entrusting herself to the See also:honour of See also:France (See also:January 12, 1500). Thus her See also:life was spared, but she was not saved from the outrages of the treacherous Cesare; she was afterwards taken to Rome and held a prisoner for a See also:year in the castle of St Angelo, whence she was liberated by the same bailli of Dijon to whom she had surrendered at Forli. She took See also:refuge in See also:Florence to escape from persecution from the Borgias, and the power of that sinister family having collapsed on the death of Alexander VI. in r 503, she attempted to regain possession of her dominions. In this she failed owing to the hostility of her See also:brothers-in-See also:law, Pierfrancesco and Lorenzo de' Medici, and as they wished to get her son Giovanni de' Medici (afterwards Giovanni See also:dalle Bande Nere) into their hands, she took refuge with him in the See also:convent of Annalena, where she died on the loth of May 1509.

See Buriel, Vita di Caterina Sforza-Riario (See also:

Bologna, 1785) ; F. See also:Oliva, Vita di C. Sforza, signora di Forli (Forli, 1821); Pietro Desiderio Pesolini Dail' Onda, Caterina Sforza (Rome, 1893); See also:English See also:translation by P. See also:Sylvester (1898). This is the best and most See also:complete See also:work on the subject; E. M. de See also:Vogue, Histoire et poesie (See also:Paris, 1898) ; and Ernesto Masi, " C. Sforza," in the Nuova Antologia for May 1 and May 15, 1893.

End of Article: SFORZA, CATERINA (1463-1509)

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