Sforza family
Descendants of the Romagnol warrior Muzio Attendolo (1369-1424), whose sons assumed his nickname. Francesco rose meteorically by military opportunism and marriage to Bianca Visconti, becoming Duke of Milan (1455-66); his sons were less fortunate or skilful: Galeazzo Maria (assassinated 1476), Lodovico (deposed and imprisoned by the French 1500, d. 1508), Ascanio (disappointed in hopes of becoming pope, d. 1505). As dukes of Milan they promoted economic growth, monumental building and the arts but dependedon professional officials, neo-feudal relations, military garrisons and unreasonably high taxation rather than institutionalized or informal consensus. Francesco's alliance with Medicean Florence and the Papacy helped to stabilize Italy, but Lodovico bore some responsibility for French invasions. His ineffectual sons were briefly dukes (Massimiliano 1512-15; Francesco 1521-24, 1529-35) between foreign occupations. The line of Bosio, another son of Muzio Attendolo, who married into the Roman and Tuscan aristocracy, sustained the family's eminence more permanently.
