Politics

City of Milan

rancesco Sforza, duke of Milan: was an extremely successful condottiere. His historical claim to fame was his broadening of trade in Milan and his improvement of the city.

Like many other rulers of his time, Francesco supported the arts and brought in humanist scholars to his court. He built canals to help industry and he built irrigation to help farmers. He built the Great Hospital and completed the cathedral in Milan. Under his rule, Milan grew to be the most powerful force in northern Italy. Francesco was an extremely athletic man who had remarkable endurance and strength. In addition, he was one of the cleverest men in all of Italy. His abilities as a diplomat, administrator, and statesman were equal to his skills as a general. He is considered by many to be the equal of other Renaissance rulers like Cosimo de' Medici. He died in 1466.

Galeazzo Sforza, duke of Milan: son of Francesco. His historical claim to fame was his uncontrolled lust and his monstrous cruelties.

A promising youth, Galeazzo reigned for ten years before his murder. He was intelligent and a patron of the arts like many of his contemporaries. He was also a fairly good administrator and politician, but his fatal flaw was his vanity. Galeazzo imposed unpopular taxes and forced workers to labor on his lands. His actions as ruler were not out of the ordinary, though. What made him a monster was his raping of the wives and daughters of the nobles of Milan and his sadistic love of torturing people to death. Three assassins killed him in 1476. His wife, Bona, proclaimed that, although he had committed numerous atrocities, she still loved him second only to God.