Throughout the Iberian Peninsula , the Renaissance strides. People despise what remains of them - the dark Middle Ages, see the shining peaks of ancient art behind, and their geniuses who have risen above time. But the country is fragmented into small possessions. And in Russia at the same time, for example, the Mongol yoke was already dropped, and the country is striving for unity, gathering around Moscow. The same processes are taking place in France, which does not yet exist, but a tendency toward one center is already outlined. Like in England.
In Italy, let’s call it so arbitrarily, because there is no Italy yet, and will not be there for a long time, there is a bloody massacre for the redistribution of possessions, in which the greedy and greedy Duke of Milan, a bloody despot who is killed at the age of 33 directly in the service of churches. He left behind, including the illegitimate daughter, whose name was Katerina Sforza. This lady will scandalously go down in the history of Italy.
First marriage
She, the illegitimate, was lucky. She was brought up perfectly, along with all the children of the duke, had a pleasant appearance, an extraordinary mind and a steel character, peeled over with a layer of sugar. Katerina Sforza married well: for her nephew and, as they say, the son of His Holiness Pope Styxt IV Girolamo Rario, also illegitimate.
In a dowry for the bride, he received the city of Imola. And then - a gift from his father - the city of Forlì. Everyone recognizes Katerina as one of the most beautiful and elegant ladies of that time. A young family lives in Rome, where her husband serves. But her husband, greedy and greedy, just a little. He squandered the money that should be paid to the soldiers, decided to measure strength with the powerful Medici. This is not in vain. A series of unsuccessful conspiracies fell upon the family. And then their patron, pontiff Stickst IV, dies. This misfortune is so misfortune. All who were in his favor are being persecuted and robbed. But a young twenty-year-old woman shows character and captures the castle of the Holy Angel with arms.
There, under siege, she remains alone, without a husband who runs to Forlì. She does not give up for a very long time until they start threatening her that they will cause a lot of trouble to her husband. And the troubles at that time were torture and quartering. Nevertheless, later in Forlì, a conspiracy against Count Imola and Forlì Girolamo. At the age of 45, he was killed in front of his wife and the naked was thrown out for scolding from the palace window. From him, his wife left a daughter and four sons. Countess Katerina Sforza with children was arrested. They demanded from her that she renounce her property - Forlì and Imola. She promised her husband’s killers to help seize the fortress in the city, which does not give up if she is released for negotiations with the commandant, and she left the children hostage. But the twenty-five-year-old Katerina Sforza (photo) was not a simpleton.
A thoughtful and gentle angel, who can only hold flowers in his hands, in a safe fortress turned into a furia and began to threaten brutal reprisal for the murder of her husband. And the children, well, what's in them, she already has five of them, the sixth she is pregnant, she also gives birth to new ones. Knowing about the military aid going to the countess from her uncle, the conspirators fled. So Katerina Sforza returned Imola and Forli to herself, and then, having gathered strength, mercilessly avenged her husband's death and her humiliation. The enemies were hanged on the same window from where her husband had been dropped, then they cut the ropes on which they hung, and the crowd under the windows tore their bodies. The houses where they lived were completely destroyed, their relatives were brutally tortured. Their property was divided between the poor.
Second marriage
Remaining the regent, guardian of her eldest son, the countess is actively involved in tax reform, reforming the army, realizing that her insignificant possessions are of strategic importance and are needed by anyone who wants to take over Italy. However, she still didn’t take off her shoes, not even a year had passed after her husband’s death, when love fell upon her and countenanced her countess.
It was a time of tender affection for a chosen one who did not yet know about his happiness. An eighteen-year-old commoner was very helpful and practical. He was able to immediately benefit from his position. Firstly, the couple secretly married (so as not to lose the ability to manage their lands and not pass them to their son), and secondly, he became the first adviser to the countess in all matters and monitored her treasury. In this marriage, the son of Carlo, who is so named in honor of the French
king , is born
. The king grants the child the title of Baron of France. Children who have already grown up did not like this state of affairs at all. Her happiness lasted seven years, but her sons found those to whom her husband's influence on Countess Imola and Forlì seemed too strong. The husband was killed in front of Katerina. And she herself had to flee. But she quickly
gathered her courage. Madness and determination knew no bounds when she found out that the sons from the first marriage of Ottavio and Cesare were involved in the plot. But in addition to these two disgraced, she still has five children. She sent these two, trembling with rage, to the dungeons, and tortured the murderers, and, together with her families, ruthlessly, fearlessly cut them out completely.
Third marriage
But after a year, the countess looked smart and captivating. The eternal enemies of the Medici, deciding to offer peace, sent their envoy Giovanni de Medici. He liked the widow and was fascinated by her. This woman easily achieved everything she wanted.
For marriage, the consent of the eldest son was required, and he, apparently reluctantly, gave it. A serene life lasted two years, the last eighth child was born, the boy Giovanni, but her husband, ill with an unknown disease, passed away. At thirty-five, the countess was again widowed.
Feudal redistribution of land
The forces of Cesare Borgia began to attack Forli and Imola. The countess was preparing for a siege in Forlì, but naively believed that the citizens of Imola would fight the troops of the conquerors. They, however, hating the countess and the entire Sforza family, simply surrendered the keys and sent troops in. The countess fired cannons at her former city. Borgia, after an unsuccessful attempt to achieve a truce, captured Forlie and the Countess, whom he immediately abused.
The countess was taken to Rome, chained in thin gold chains, and thrown into the dungeon of the castle of the Holy Angel. There she spent about a year, got old and became ill.
She now had no personal lands, and she left for her husband’s homeland, in Florence. There the children were waiting for her. She spent the last nine years of her life with them.
So Katerina Sforza spent her life violently. Her biography is such that it is remembered to this day, although it has been five centuries already.
There is an unproven legend that Katarina Sforza is depicted on the portrait of Mona Lisa. The time of the beginning of the creation of the portrait and Katarina's stay in Florence coincides. But this is only one of the assumptions. Around Great Lernardo, everything is shrouded in mystery.
Last child
Children of Katerina Sforza did not remain in history. But Giovanni de Medici, the son of his last marriage, turned out to be the most outstanding of her eight children. Machiavelli respected him and suggested that if anyone could unite Italy into a single whole, it was Giovanni. When his mother died, he was eleven years old, and until seventeen his guardian was a relative, a banker. The teenager was interested only in a military career and nothing more. And he dies at twenty-eight years after being wounded in battle.
But he left the son of Cosimo, who would later become Cosimo I, the Grand Duke of Tuscany. From Cosimo, the Medici clan will first become related through
Maria Medici to the French royal house, and through her descendants will become the ancestor of many royal clans of Europe.
Katerina Sforza was a product of her time: a steel character, stubbornness and vindictiveness, revenge and cruelty, quickness to reprisal. And in the saddle she had almost no equal. She always had a dagger on her belt. She, if she was not faithful to her husbands, then skillfully hid it. In spite of everything, she treated the children with care and affection. Death at the age of forty-five is natural for the time when there were no centenarians.