Galeazzo Maria Sforza.

Galeazzo Maria Sforza (January 24, 1444 – December 26, 1476) was Duke of Milan from 1466 until his death. He was a member of the Sforza family of Milanese rulers, famous as patrons of the arts and music. He was also famous for being lustful, cruel and tyrannical. Image File history File links Size of this preview: 393 × 599 pixel Image in higher resolution (714 × 1089 pixel, file size: 102 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Galeazzo Maria Sforza, duke of Milan. ... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 393 × 599 pixel Image in higher resolution (714 × 1089 pixel, file size: 102 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Galeazzo Maria Sforza, duke of Milan. ... January 24 is the 24th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Events March 2 - Gjergj Kastriot Skanderbeg proclaimed commander of the Albanian resistance April 16 - Truce of Tours. ... December 26 is the 360th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, 361st in leap years. ... Events March 2 - Battle of Grandson. ... Milan (Italian: ; Lombard: Milán (listen)) is the main city of northern Italy, located in the plains of Lombardy. ... Events Chimú Empire conquered by troops of the Inca End of term for Regent of Sweden Jöns Bengtsson Oxenstierna. ... Sforza was a ruling family of Renaissance Italy, based in Milan. ...

Galeazzo was born to Francesco Sforza, a popular condottiero and ally of Cosimo de' Medici who had gained the dukedom of Milan, and Bianca Maria Visconti. He married into the Gonzaga family, and on the death of his wife Dorotea married again, to another Gonzaga, the daughter of Ludovico II of Mantua. Galeazzo was murdered in the Church of Santo Stefano in Milan. Portrait of Francesco Sforza, ca 1460, by Bonifazio Bembo: Sforza insisted on being shown in his worn dirty old campaigning hat. ... Condottieri (singular condottiero) were mercenary leaders employed by Italian city-states from the late Middle Ages until the mid-sixteenth century. ... Jacopo Pontormo: Cosimo de Medici, 1518-1519 Cosimo di Giovanni de Medici (September 27, 1389 – August 1, 1464), was the first of the Medici political dynasty, rulers of Florence during most of the Italian Renaissance; also known as Cosimo the Elder (il Vecchio) and Cosimo Pater Patriae. ... Bianca Maria Visconti, heiress of the Duchy of Milan, with her first-born son Galeazzo as Saint Mary with the child Jesus Christ Bianca Maria Visconti (born March 31, 1425 near Settimo Pavese, died October 28, 1468 in Melegnano) was the illegitimate daughter of Filippo Maria Visconti, Duke of Milan... The Gonzaga family ruled Mantua in Northern Italy from 1328 to 1708. ... Andrea Mantegna: Ludovico Gonzaga, 1474. ...

Patronage

Galeazzo was famous as a patron of music. Under his direction, financial backing and encouragement, his chapel grew into one of the most famous and historically significant musical ensembles in Europe. Composers from the north, especially the Franco-Flemish composers from the present-day Low Countries, came to sing in his chapel and write masses, motets and secular music for him. Some of the figures associated with the Sforza chapel include Alexander Agricola, Johannes Martini, Loyset Compère, and Gaspar van Weerbeke. Most of the singers at the chapel fled after Galeazzo's murder, however, and took positions elsewhere; soon there was a rise in musical standards in other cities such as Ferrara as a result. In music, the Dutch School refers, somewhat imprecisely, to the style of polyphonic vocal music composition in Europe in the 15th and 16th centuries. ... The Low Countries, the historical region of de Nederlanden, are the countries (see Country) on low-lying land around the delta of the Rhine, Scheldt, and Meuse (Maas) rivers. ... Unsolved problems in physics: What causes anything to have mass? The U.S. National Prototype Kilogram, which currently serves as the primary standard for measuring mass in the U.S. Mass is the property of a physical object that quantifies the amount of matter and energy it is equivalent to. ... In Western music, motet is a word that is applied to a number of highly varied choral musical compositions. ... Alexander Agricola (1445 or 1446 – August 1506) was a Franco-Flemish composer of the Renaissance. ... Johannes Martini (c. ... Manuscript of Omnium bonorum plena, a motet by Compère, and possibly his earliest surviving work; the exact date is uncertain, but it was possibly written for the dedication of Cambrai Cathedral on July 2, 1472. ... Gaspar van Weerbeke (c. ... Ferrara is a city in Emilia-Romagna, Italy, capital city of the province of Ferrara. ...

Reputation

Galeazzo, despite his love of music, is also known to have had a cruel streak. He was a notorious womaniser who often passed his women on to his courtiers once he grew tired of them. He once had a poacher executed by forcing him to swallow an entire hare (with fur intact), had another man nailed alive to his coffin, and a priest who had predicted a short reign for Galeazzo was punished by being starved to death. This behaviour led to his making many enemies in Milan. Jack rabbit and Jackrabbit redirect here. ... Roman Catholic priests in clerical clothing. ...

Assassination

There were three principal assassins involved in Galeazzo's death: Carlo Visconti, Gerolamo Olgiati and Giovanni Andrea Lampugnani, all fairly high-ranking officials in the Milan court. Carlo Visconti (? – January 2, 1477) was a member of the prominent Visconti family, a government secretary in Milans Council of Justice, and an assassin of Galeazzo Maria Sforza, the Duke of Milan. ... Gerolamo Olgiati (1453 – January 2, 1477) was a government official in Milan and an assassin of Galeazzo Maria Sforza, the Duke of Milan, along with Giovanni Andrea Lampugnani and Carlos Visconti. ... Giovanni Andrea Lampugnani (? – December 26, 1476) was a member of the Milanese nobility and an assassin of Galeazzo Maria Sforza, the Duke of Milan. ...

Lampugnani, descended from Milanese nobility is recognized as the leader of the conspiracy, his motives based primarily on a land dispute, in which Galeazzo failed to intervene in a matter which saw the Lampugnani family lose considerable properties. Visconti and Olgiati also bore the Duke enmity - Olgiati was a Republican idealist, whereas Visconti believed the Duke to have taken his sister's virginity. For other uses, see Republic (disambiguation). ...

After carefully studying the Duke's movements, the conspirators made their move on the day after Christmas, 1476, the official day of Santo Stefano, the namesake of the church where the deed was to be committed. Supported by about thirty friends, the three men waited in the church for the Duke to arrive for mass. When the Duke arrived, Lampugnani knelt before Galeazzo, and after some words were exchanged, rose suddenly, stabbing him in the groin and breast. Olgiati and Visconti soon joined in, as did a servant of Lampugnani's. Christmas is an annual holiday that marks the birth of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. ...

Galeazzo was dead within a matter of seconds, and all the assassins quickly escaped the ensuing mayhem save for Lampugnani who became entangled in some of the church's cloth and was killed. His body soon fell upon possession of a mob, which dragged it through the streets, slashing and beating at it until it was hung, upside-down, outside his house. It was cut down the next day, since beheaded, and in an act of symbolism, the "sinning" right hand was removed, burnt and put on display.

Aftermath of the assassination

Despite the initial public reaction, the government brought swift justice, soon encouraged by the public as well.

The conspirators had given little thought as to the repercussions of their crime, and were apprehended within days. Visconti and Olgiati were soon found and executed, as was the servant of Lampugnani who had participated in the slaying, in a public ceremony which culminated in their corpses being displayed as warnings to others.

Evidence from the conspirators' confessions indicated that the assassins had been encouraged by the humanist Cola Montano, who had left Milan some months before, and who bore malice against Galeazzo for a public whipping some years before.

Similar elements indicate that this assassination was likely influential in the Pazzi Conspiracy, a subsequent attempt to dethrone the Medici family in Florence. The Pazzi family were Tuscan nobles who had become bankers in Florence in the 14th century. ... The Medici coat of arms The Medici family was a powerful and influential Florentine family from the 13th to 17th century. ... Florences skyline Florences skyline at night from Piazza Michaelangelo Florence (Italian: ) is the capital city of the region of Tuscany, Italy. ...

Upon Galeazzo's death, his son Gian Galeazzo Sforza became Duke. His daughter Bianca Maria Sforza (born in 1472) later married Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor, in 1493. Gian Galeazzo Sforza (June 20, 1469 - October 21, 1494), the third duke of Milan of the Sforza family, was only 7 years old when he became the duke in 1476, after the assassination of his father, Galeazzo Maria Sforza. ... Bianca Maria Sforza (Milan, April 5, 1472 – December 31, 1510 in Innsbruck) was the daughter of Duke Galeazzo Maria Sforza of Milan. ... February 20 - Orkney and Shetland are returned by Norway to Scotland, due to a defaulted dowry payment Possible discovery of Bacalao (possibly Newfoundland, North America) by João Vaz Corte-Real. ... Portrait by Albrecht Dürer, 1519 (Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna). ... 1493 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...

References

• Martines, Lauro (2003). April Blood: Florence and the Plot Against the Medici. Oxford UP. 

External links

• Biographical notes to Galazzo Maria Sforza