White-Marie Sforza (in Italian Bianca Maria Sforza ) was born with Pavia the April 5th 1472, girl of the duke of Milan Galéas Marie Sforza and of Bonne of Savoy.

Not held promises of marriage

It was promised in marriage to various princes for political reasons: shortly after its birth, with Philibert Ier of Savoy, which died in seventeen years in 1482, before the marriage was not celebrated, and then in natural Jean, wire of Mathias Corvin and claiming with the crown of Hungary; but it is Ladislas de Bohème which went up on the Magyar throne, and this second promise of marriage was not held either.

In 1494, to twenty-two years, it was finally given in marriage by his/her uncle Ludovic More to the Empereur Maximilien {{Ier}}, which was widowed and several years his elder. The dowry was of three hundred and thousand ducats, and a hundred and thousand of more as a tax of nomination. More had indeed the ambition to be made name duke of Milan by Maximilien; this last sought, by this matrimonial alliance, to secure hegemony on Italy of North and finances for its military forwardings.

After memorable weddings, the bride left for the the Tyrol with a court ladies and gentlemen among whom, inter alia, Léonard de Vinci, which us left its impressions of them on the Valteline: the escort made halt with Like, Bellagio, Gravedona, Morbegno, Sondrio and Bormio, and passed the Col of Stelvio.

A prestigious and not very merry marriage

Maximilien, which was emperor of 1493 with 1519, had, in 1477 married in first weddings Marie of Burgundy, princess heiress of Burgundy and the Burgundian Netherlands, only daughter of Charles Bold the. From this marriage, very happy, were born two children, Philippe and Marguerite. This union was however of short duration, because Marie died in 1482 following a fall of horse. The Emperor was never in love with White-Marie, he neglected it and she did not give him children. It was said that “  Sforza  ”, though as beautiful as the first (and liked) wife of Maximilien, was not also “  sage  ”.

At the time of this marriage, Maximilien made decorate the Neuer Hof with Innsbruck of a “  platform of or  ”, i.e. of a cabin whose roof was made of 2  500 small gilded copper tiles. It is remarkable that the Emperor wanted to be made represent in portrait with his two wives, White-Marie Sforza (which, with the truth, was not particularly pretty) and the preceding one, the very liked and ever repudiated Marie of Burgundy.

The young empress never took part in the political life and preferred food in various imperial castles, especially in the Tyrol, surrounded by a small court of noble faithful Milaneses, and “  protégée  ” (or, rather, supervised) by the emissary of Ludovic More, towards which it showed with time an increasing impatience. Its role did not acquire a certain relief that within the framework of the alliance of her husband with his uncle Ludovic, of which it accommodated and lodged wire, after, overcome and driven out from Milan, he was taken along in captivity to France.

At the end of her life, White-Marie was victim of a debilitating disease, where certain historians believe to see the symptoms of the nervous anorexia. She died the December 31st 1510 and was buried in the Cistercian abbey of Stams, in the Tyrol, in the high valley of the Inn.

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