the commander of the armies of Milan.
On the latter’s death in 1447, Milan de-
clared a republic. Francesco allied with
Venice and the Medici rulers of Florence,
then besieged and conquered Milan and
proclaimed himself its duke in 1450. In
the same year, he made the Peace of Lodi
with Cosimo de’ Medici, the leader of Flo-
rence. Francesco allied with Florence and
other northern cities in order to prevent
conquest of northern Italy by larger and
more unified realms of northern Europe, a
threat that came to fruition after his death
when the king of France invaded Lom-
bardy to subdue the power of Milan.
Francesco’s son Ludovico succeeded him
and was formally proclaimed Duke of Mi-
lan by Emperor Maximilian I of the Holy
Roman Empire.
Francesco glorified himself and his
new Sforza dynasty by his patronage of
sculptors, artists, and architects who raised
new monuments and buildings in Milan.
He improved the city’s finances and made
the Milanese court an important center of
Renaissance scholarship.
SEEALSO: Sforza, Caterina; Sforza, Lu-
dovico; Visconti dynasty
Sforza, Ludovico .............................
(1452–1508)
Duke of Milan from 1494 until 1499. The
second son of Francesco I Sforza, he was
born in the town of Vigevano in the Lom-
bardy region of northern Italy. He was a
ruthlessly ambitious Renaissance prince
who patronized some of the greatest art-
ists of Europe, including Leonardo da
Vinci and Donato Bramante.
On the death of Francesco Sforza in
1466, Ludovico’s elder brother Galeazzo
became the duke of Milan. When Galeazzo
was murdered in 1476, the duchy of Milan
passed to his son Gian Galeazzo, then
seven years of age. Ludovico was thwarted
in his attempt to seize the duchy and ex-
iled from Milan by Gian Galeazzo’s chief
minister, Cicco Simonetta. Soon returning
to the city,Ludovicohad Simonetta mur-
dered in 1480 and then banished Gian
Galeazzo and his mother, Bona of Savoy,
from Milan. Gian Galeazzo established a
rival court in the city of Pavia and, with
the support of his wife Isabella of Castile,
the daughter of the king of Spain, contin-
ued to make his claim for the duchy.
In search of ways to secure his author-
ity, Ludovico allied himself with King
Charles VIII of France, and, in order to
glorify and legitimize his reign, he engaged
Leonardo da Vinci to create works of art
in the city that would include theLast Sup-
per, painted for the refectory of the Santa
Maria della Grazie monastery.
On the death of Gian Galeazzo in
1494, the way was clear for Ludovico to
secure his hold on the duchy. He struck an
alliance with King Charles VIII of France
and arranged a marriage between his niece
and Maximilian I, the Holy Roman Em-
peror. In return Maximilian officially rec-
ognized Ludovico as the Duke of Milan,
while the French assembled an army and
invaded Italy. In 1495, Ludovico turned
against the French, who were eventually
defeated and chased from Italy.
In 1499, Charles’s successor King Louis
XII laid claim to the duchy through his
descent from Gian Galeazzo Visconti, a
member of the dynasty that had preceded
the Sforzas as dukes of Milan. Louis in-
vaded Italy and forced Ludovico to flee
Milan. After assembling an army of Swiss
mercenaries, Ludovico prepared a counter-
attack. His forces were defeated at the
Battle of Novara in 1500 and he was taken
prisoner by the French. Brought to the
castle of Loches, in central France, Lu-Sforza, Ludovico