In an attempt to save one of his pages during the forging of the Pescara River, Sforza drowned and his body was swept away by the waters.

* Sforza Hours: London, British Library, Add.

This earlier Italian form of bladder pipe is found illustrated at the end of the 15th century in the Book of Hours, known as the Sforza Book ( British Museum ).

Naples, which was held by Alfonso's brother, Pedro de Aragon, was besieged in 1424 by the Genoese ships and Joan's troops, now led by Francesco Sforza, son of Muzio ( who had died at L ' Aquila ).

* 1500 – Ludovico Sforza is captured by the Swiss troops at Novara and is handed over to the French.

Before meeting Cesare, Leonardo had worked at the Milanese court of Ludovico Sforza for many years, until Louis XII of France drove Sforza out of Italy.

Sforza later found himself warring against his son Francesco ( whom he defeated at the Battle of Montolmo in 1444 ) and, later, the alliance of Visconti, Eugene IV, and Sigismondo Malatesta, who had allegedly murdered Polissena.

The following year, the combined Papal-Neapolitan army, led by Giacomo Caldora and Francesco Sforza, defeated him at the Battle of L ' Aquila ( 2 June 1424 ); Braccio died a few days later.

In 1442 Eugene, Alfonso and Visconti sent Niccolò Piccinino to reconquer the March of Ancona from Francesco Sforza, but the defeat of the allied army at the Battle of Montolmo pushed the Pope to reconcile with Sforza.

Despite the justification of Venetian embroilment in the terraferma that was offered in Foscari's funeral oration, delivered by the humanist senator and historian Bernardo Giustiniani, and some encouraging notable victories, the war was extremely costly to Venice, whose real source of wealth and power was at sea, and to her ally Florence ; they were eventually overcome by the forces of Milan under the leadership of Francesco Sforza.

Vigevano is crowned by the Castello Sforzesco, a stronghold rebuilt 1492 – 94 for Ludovico Maria Sforza ( Ludovico il Moro ), the great patron born in the town, who transformed the fortification / hunting lodge of Luchino Visconti ( who in turn had re-used a Lombard fortress ) into a rich noble residence, at the cusp of Gothic and Renaissance.

Ferdinand was severely defeated by the Angevins and the rebels at the battle of Sarno in July 1460, but with the help of Alessandro Sforza and of the Albanian chief, Skanderbeg, who came to the aid of the prince whose father had aided him, he triumphed over his enemies, and by 1464 had re-established his authority in the kingdom.

From 1466 he was more or less constantly at the service of the Sforza of Milan.

* Susanna ( Nun at Santa Chiara di Mantua ; 1447 – 1481 ) betrothed to Galeazzo Maria Sforza.

French forces under Gaston de Foix inflicted an overwhelming defeat on a Spanish army at the Battle of Ravenna in 1512, but Foix was killed during the battle, and the French were forced to withdraw from Italy by an invasion of Milan by the Swiss, who reinstated Maximilian Sforza to the ducal throne.

Ludovico Sforza was born on July 27, 1452, at Vigevano, in what is now Lombardy.

Leonardo displayed his " robot " at a celebration hosted by Duke Sforza at the court of Milan in 1495.

The Sforza family, which comprised the Milanese faction, was at the time one of the most powerful in Europe.

Facing Braccio at the head of the Angevine army was Muzio Attendolo Sforza and his son Francesco.

While posing for the painting, she invited Leonardo, who at the time was working as court artist for Sforza, to meetings at which Milanese intellectuals discussed philosophy and other subjects.

Founder of the Sforza dynasty, he led a Bolognese-Florentine army at the Battle of Casalecchio.

Over time, the Medici acquired several territories, which included: the County of Pitigliano, purchased off the Orsini family in 1604 ; the County of Santa Fiora, acquired from the House of Sforza in 1633 ; Spain ceded Pontremoli in 1650, Silvia Piccolomini sold her estates, the Marquisate of Castiglione at the time of Cosimo I, Lordship of Pietra Santa, and the Duchy of Capistrano and the city of Penna in the Kingdom of Naples.

In the 16th century, Polish Queen Bona Sforza founded a fortress at the rock over the river and named it Bar, after her home town of Bari in Italy.

In her book The Warrior Queens: Boadicea's Chariot, British historian Antonia Fraser presents Caterina Sforza as a contrasting figure to her contemporary Isabella I of Castile.

The Library Trivulziana of Sforza Castle that include the Leonardo da Vinci's ' Codex Trivulzianus ' manuscript.

When Sforza also abandoned Louis, Alfonso seemed to have all his problems solved ; however, his relationship with Joan suddenly worsened, and in May 1423 he had her lover, and a powerful figure in the Neapolitan court, Gianni Caracciolo, arrested.

* May 27 – Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan ( b. 1452 )

* May 10 – Caterina Sforza, countess of Forli ( b. 1463 )

* May 28 – Muzio Sforza, condottiero ( d. 1424 )

Ludovico Sforza ( also known as Ludovico il Moro ; 27 July 1452 – 27 May 1508 ), was Duke of Milan from 1489 until his death.

She had a son, Cesare, on 3 May 1491 by Lodovico Sforza.

Muzio Attendolo Sforza ( May 28, 1369 – January 4, 1424 ) was an Italian condottiero.

After the treaty of May 1517, Winkelried threatened to declare war on the king of France ( who now also was the duke of Milan ) privately because of the unpaid wages still owed by Sforza, the previous duke.

Caterina Sforza, Countess of Forlì ( early 1463 – 28 May 1509 ) was an Italian noblewoman, the illegitimate daughter of Galeazzo Maria Sforza, Duke of Milan and Lucrezia Landriani, the wife of the courtier Gian Piero Landriani, a close friend of the Duke.

On 4 May 1534 Christina was married by proxy to Francesco II Sforza, Duke of Milan, who died in 1535 leaving her widowed when she was fourteen.

At the time, Alessandro Farnese and Guido Ascanio Sforza were aged fourteen and sixteen years respectively.

During this time, Queen Bona Sforza founded a folwark in Pomian, an area situated within Ostrołęka's city borders today.

The Thurzo family were in close relations with Polish King Zygmunt Stary, thus not surprisingly Bona Sforza stayed for a night on her way to the marriage in Kraków with Zygmunt Stary ( 1518 ). Thurzo's possessions were dissolved over time ( stripped of Mysłowice in 1536 ) and eventually, the land of Pszczyna was purchased by Baltazar Promnitz, bishop of Wroclaw under special regulation that no land shall be divided.

The French were again driven out in 1521, this time by the Austrians, who installed Massimiliano's younger brother, Francesco II Sforza.

In the 1470s Compère worked as a singer in Milan at the chapel of Duke Galeazzo Maria Sforza, during the time that composers such as Johannes Martini and Gaspar van Weerbeke were also singing there.

* The massive Rocca Costanza ( Castle ), built in the 15th century by Costanzo I Sforza, later for a time used as prison.

In the short film series, Assassin's Creed: Lineage ( a live-action short film set in the Assassin's Creed videogame franchise ), the Duke's assassination is depicted with some liberties, with the protagonist Giovanni Auditore arriving only in time to see Lampugnani stab Sforza in the abdomen.

William of Portaleone, physician to King Ferdinand I of Naples, and to the ducal houses of Sforza and Gonzaga, was one of the ablest of that time.

He was one of the members of the famous Sforza chapel choir in Milan between 1474 and 1476, which included Alexander Agricola, Loyset Compère and Johannes Martini, the time when this institution had one of the most famous groups of singers and composers in Europe.

The loyalty to the Papal cause meant that the Farnese were granted confirmation of their possessions in the northern Lazio and given a series of privileges which raised them to the same level as more ancient and powerful Roman barons of the time, such as the Savelli, Orsini, Monaldeschi and Sforza of Santa Fiora.

The subject of the portrait is identified as Cecilia Gallerani, and was probably painted at a time when she was the mistress of Lodovico Sforza, Duke of Milan, and Leonardo was in the service of the Duke.

Pope Sixtus IV gave Girolamo the Lordship of Imola, already a Sforza city, but at the time a fief of the Riario family.

She married her first cousin, Gian Galeazzo Sforza, who at the time was the Duke of Milan.

The siege remained unbroken throughout July and until 15 September, when Attendolo launched a surprise-attack on Sforza, so rapid that he did not even have time to buckle on his armor.

The ravages of time have been unkind to Ciriaco's lifework, which he never published, but which fortunately circulated in manuscript and in copies of his drawings ; the Commentarii were lost in the 1514 fire of the library of Alessandro and Costanza Sforza in Pesaro.

The project was seen as being of great public benefit: since the war between Milan and Venice, Sforza had realised the military and economic potential of a navigable canal in an area that, at the time, was considered to be of strategic importance to the dukedom.

Milan then fell under the lordship of Sforza, whom Colleoni served for a time, but in 1448 he took leave of Sforza and returned to the Venetians.