Galéas Marie Sforza

Galéas Marie Sforza , in Italian Galeazzo Maria Sforza , born with Fermo (Steps) the January 24th 1444 and died in Milan the December 26th 1476, is a noble Italy N which was duke of Milan.

__TOC Galéas Marie belonged to the family Sforza which dominated the Milanese area and was famous for its mécénat.
He was the son of François Sforza, a general popular and combined Cosme de Médicis, and of Blanche Marie Visconti.

His/her father died the March 8th 1466 and it became duke of Milan to his continuation, at the 22 years age. It Maria, this same year, with the girl of Louis III of Mantoue, Dorothée Gonzague (1449-1467) which died the following year, the April 24th 1467, with Pavia. It remaria, in 1468, with Good of Savoy (1449-1485), girl of Louis I {{er}}, duke of Savoy.
Having ensured a government in half color, having marked by its artistic tastes and its cruel, tyrannical and lustful character, Galéas was assassinated the December 26th 1476 in the church Santo Stefano of Milan.

Patronage

Galéas was a particularly active patron in the field of the music. Under its financial direction and its supports, its vault grows until becoming one of the musical whole most important in Europe. Type-setters of the north of Europe, in particular of the free-Flemish school and Netherlands, flowed to compose and sing in its vault. These artists wrote for Sforza of the masses, the Motet S and the secular music. Among them, one could find Alexander Agricola, Johannes Martini, Loyset Compère, and Gaspar van Weerbeke. The majority of the singers of the vault left the field of Sforza after its assassination and found work elsewhere. Other cities as Ferrare became places privileged for the musicians.

Reputation

In spite of its love of the music, Sforza was known for its cruel character and libertine. Avid of female conquests, he forsook his partners to once offer them to his courtiers he had obtained what he wanted. It once ordered the execution of a poacher by forcing it to swallow the complete fur of the hare which it had cut down. A man was nailed with his coffin and a priest who had predicted a reign runs for the sovereign was punished by letting it die of hunger. This tyrannical side attracted many enemies in Milan to him.

Assassination

Three people conspired against Galéas: Carlos Visconti, Gerolamo Olgiati and Giovanni Andrea Lampugnani, all officers high graded at the court of Milan.

Lampugnani, going down from the Milanese nobility, is regarded as the leader of the assassination. Its conflict with Galéas was of a territorial nature, during an episode where the intervention of Galéas made lose most of the possessions of the Lampugnani family. Visconti and Olgiati also had objections against the duke: Olgiati was a republican idealist and Visconti wanted of it in Sforza to have taken the virginity of his/her sister.

After having studied the actions of the duke, the conspirators launched their operation the shortly after Christmas in 1476, the official day of Santo Stefano , whose church was to be the theater of the murder. Helped of approximately thirty friends, the three officers awaited the arrival of the duke to the church for the mass. When Galéas arrived, Lampugnani knelt in front of him and after some words, rose suddenly and stabbed it with the groin and in the chest. The duke exclaimed according to a witness, Orfeo Cenni da Ricavo: Io its morto! (“I died! ”). Olgiati, Visconti and a servant of Lampugnani arrived in their turn to strike the duke. Galéas succumbed quickly and all the assassins escaped. But Lampugnani will be empêtra in curtains of the church and was killed by the guard of Galéas. Crowd seized the corpse of the criminal who was trailed in the city, was whipped and beaten then finally hung upside down in front of his house. The following day, the body was decapitated and its right hand, that which had carried the knife, was cut down, burned then exposed.

Consequences

In spite of strong reactions at the beginning, the government returned justice quickly. The conspirators had not really thought of the consequences of their act and were apprehended a few days afterwards. Visconti, Olgiati and the servant were carried out publicly and their exposed bodies. The assassins affirmed to be encouraged by humanistic the Cola Montano which had left Milan a few months before and which hated Galéas after being whipped in public. Other elements indicate that the murder fell under the conspiracy of Pazzi, an attempt at inversion of the throne of the family Médicis with Florence.

After the death of Galéas, his/her son Jean Galéas succeeded to him.

Descent

The first marriage of Galéas Marie with Dorothée Gonzague did not bring a descent.

From its marriage with Good of Savoy, were born four children:

Jean Galéas II (1469-1494) which became duke with dead of Galéas Marie and married Isabelle of Naples (1470-1524)
Ermes (1470-1503) which became marquis of Tortona
Blanche Marie (1472-1510) which married, in 1493, the emperor Maximilien I {{er}}
Anna Maria (1473-1497) which married, in 1491, Alphonse I {{er}}, duke of Ferrare.

Galéas Marie also had a natural girl, Chiara (1467-1531), which married the count Pietro dal Verme di Sanguinetto, lord of Vigevano, then, in 1488, Fregosino Fregoso, lord of Novi Ligure
like several illegitimate children:

Carlo (1461-1483) which was count of Magenta and married, in 1478, the countess Bianca Simonetta
Catherine Sforza (Ca 1463-1509), girl of the countess Lucrèce Landriani
Alessandro (1465-1523) which was lord of Francavilla Bisio and married, about 1490, Barbara Balbiani di Valchiavenna
Ottaviano (1477-Ca 1541) who became bishop of Lodi and of Arezzo
Galeazzo (1478-1515) which was count of Melzo.

References

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