1525) Isabella of Aragon

Isabella of Aragon (1470 – 1524), also known as Isabella of Naples. Duchess of Milan (by marriage) and suo jure Duchess of Bari.

A member of the Neapolitan branch of the House of Trastamara, her life was characterised by the political crises surrounding the Italian Wars. Isabella often found herself torn between her native Kingdom of Naples and her marital home of the Duchy of Milan, causing her to suffer personal and political difficulties. After a disastrous marriage and lack of support in Milan, she received the Duchy of Bari as her personal property. This change in circumstances gave Isabella the opportunity to form her own court as well as build up political support and security against the ongoing wars. These reforms along with her interest in arts and literature, resulted in Bari undergoing revival and refurbishment. During this period, she also concentrated on the education of her daughter Bona, who became Queen of Poland.

She was the second child of Alfonso, Duke of Calabria (who became King of Naples in 1494) and his wife, Ippolita Maria Sforza.

The only daughter from her parents' marriage, Isabella had two brothers: the elder was Prince Ferdinand (who would succeed their father to throne in 1495 but died one year later in October 1496) and the younger was Prince Piero (who was Lieutenant General of Apulia and Prince of Rossano, but died young of an infection following leg surgery on 17 February 1491). The siblings were raised alongside their cousins, the children of Eleanor of Naples, who included Isabella and Beatrice d'Este. Isabella had a particularly close relationship with the latter, developing into something of a sisterhood.

In 1480 she married her first cousin Gian Galeazzo Sforza, heir of the Duchy of Milan. They had four children: Francesco (1491-1512), Ippolita (1493-1501), Bona (1494, 1557, who became queen of Poland) and Bianca (1495-1497).

 

Isabella's appearance is somewhat disputed, due to the scarcity of her certain portraits. Some contemporaries describe her as particularly ugly.

She has also been suggested as the subject of da Vinci's Mona Lisa.

 

Lunette of Isabella of Aragon in the house of the Atellani, Milan. One of the few certain portraits.

 

 

 

Here are some possible portraits of Isabella. For more information, see here. 

 

Lady with a Flea Fur, by Bernardino Luini

Portrait of a Lady, by Ambrogio de Predis

Virgin and Child, by Giovanni Antonio Boltraffio

Madonna Litta, attributed to Leonardo da Vinci

Possible portraits of Isabella and her husband Gian Galeazzo

 

1483) Bona Sforza d'Aragona

Bona Sforza d'Aragona (1494 – 1557). Queen of Poland and Grand Duchess of Lithuania as the second wife of Sigismund I the Old, and Duchess of Bari and Rossano by her own right.

Smart, energetic and ambitious, Bona became heavily involved in the political and cultural life of Poland–Lithuania. To increase state revenue during the Chicken Rebellion, she implemented various economic and agricultural reforms, including the far-reaching Wallach Reform in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. In foreign policy, she was allied with the Ottoman Empire and sometimes opposed the Habsburgs.

She was the third of the four children of Gian Galeazzo Sforza, legal heir to the Duchy of Milan, and Isabella of Naples, daughter of King Alfonso II of Naples from the House of Trastámara. Her paternal great-uncle Ludovico Sforza, known to history as "Il Moro", usurped her father's power and sent the small family to live at the Castello Visconteo in Pavia, where her father died the same year she was born. Rumors spread that he was poisoned by Ludovico.

By April 1502, Bona and her mother settled at the Castello Normanno-Svevo in Bari more permanently, where she started an excellent education. Her teachers included Italian humanists Crisostomo Colonna and Antonio de Ferraris, who taught her mathematics, natural science, geography, history, law, Latin, classical literature, theology, and how to play several musical instruments.

She and King Sigismund had six childern: Sophia Jagiellon, Isabella Jagiellon, Sigismund II Augustus, Anna Jagiellon, Catherine Jagiellon and Albert Jagiellon.

 

Venus and Cupid, by Lucas Cranach the Elder

Portrait of Bona Sforza, by Bernardino Licinio

Judith with the Head of Holofernes, by Lucas Cranach the Elder

Portrait of Bona Sforza and her son as Madonna and Child under an apple tree, by Lucas Cranach the Elder

 

1477) Beatrice d'Este

Beatrice d'Este (1475 – 1497). Duchess of Bari and Milan by marriage to Ludovico Sforza (known as "il Moro"). She was one of the most important personalities of the time and, despite her short life, she was a major player in Italian politics. A woman of culture, an important patron, a leader in fashion: alongside her illustrious husband she made Milan one of the greatest capitals of the European Renaissance. With her own determination and bellicose nature, she was the soul of the Milanese resistance against the enemy French during the first of the Italian Wars.

She was the second child of Ercole I d'Este and Eleonora d'Aragona.

Mother of Maximilian Sforza and sister of Isabella d'Este.

 

Below, two portraits of Beatrice d'Este.

Ludovico Sforza and Beatrice d'Este

Lunette of Beatrice d'Este in Palazzo degli Atellani in Milan, early sixteenth century, perhaps by Bernardino Luini.

 

 

 

 

And below, three presumed portraits of Beatrice d'Este.

1510 circa, by Alessandro Araldi

Portrait of a Lady in Profile, by Bernardino de' Conti (circle of Leonardo da Vinci)

Portrait of a Young Lady, c. 1500, from the circle of Leonardo da Vinci

 

 

1476) Anna Maria Sforza

Anna Maria Sforza (1476 – 1497). Hereditary Princess of Ferrara as the first wife of Alfonso I d'Este, future Duke of Ferrara. She was the second legitimate daughter of Galeazzo Maria Sforza, Duke of Milan, and his second wife, Bona of Savoy.

She had two older brothers: Gian Galeazzo Sforza and Hermes Maria Sforza, Marquis of Tortona, and a sister, Bianca Maria Sforza, second wife of Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor. Caterina Sforza was her half-sister.

In 1491 she married Alfonso I d'Este, the heir of Ercole I d'Este, Duke of Ferrara, but died in childbirth in 1497.

Alfonso remarried, to Lucrezia Borgia, in 1502.

 

Below, a presumed portrait of Anna Maria (Ritratto di dama, by Giovanni Ambrogio de Predis, from the school of Leonardo da Vinci).

 

 

1472) Maximilan Sforza

Maximilian Sforza (also known as Ercole Massimiliano Sforza, 1493 – 1530). Duke of Milan from the Sforza family, son of Ludovico Sforza and Beatrice d'Este. He was installed as a ruler of Milan in 1512 after the capture of Milan by the Holy League. He ruled 1512–1515, between the occupations of Louis XII of France (1500–1512), and Francis I of France in 1515. After the French victory at the Battle of Marignano, Maximilian was imprisoned by the returning French troops.

When Maximilian was three his father tried to arrange a marriage between him and Mary Tudor, the younger daughter of King Henry VII of England. However, Henry VII rejected the proposal citing Mary's young age as the issue.

 

 

327) Bianca Maria Sforza

Bianca Maria Sforza (1472 – 1510). Queen of Germany and Italy, and Empress of the Holy Roman Empire as the third spouse of Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor. She was the eldest legitimate daughter of Duke Galeazzo Maria Sforza of Milan by his second wife, Bona of Savoy.

She had two brothers: Gian Galeazzo Sforza and Hermes Maria Sforza, Marquis of Tortona, and a sister, Anna Maria Sforza. Caterina Sforza was her half-sister.

In 1485, the engagement between Bianca and John Corvinus, the only (though illegitimate) son of King Matthias Corvinus of Hungary, was formally announced. The marriage by proxy was signed on 25 November 1487, and according to the terms of the contract, Bianca received several Hungarian counties. However, due to the opposition and intrigues of Queen Beatrix, wife of King Matthias, the formal marriage never took place.

In 1494 in Hall, Tyrol, Bianca married her second husband, the widowed King Maximilian I of Germany.

 

261) Ippolita Maria Sforza

Ippolita Maria Sforza (1446 – 1484). Italian noble woman, member of the Sforza family which ruled the Duchy of Milan from 1450 until 1535. She was the first wife of Alfonso, Duke of Calabria, who later reigned as King Alfonso II of Naples and mother of Isabella of Aragon. 

According to Renaissance historian Maike Vogt-Lüerssen, the woman in these paintings is Ippolita Sforza. http://www.kleio.org/en/history/famtree/vip/440/…

218) Bianca Maria Visconti

Bianca Maria Visconti (1425 –1468). Duchess of Milan from 1450 to 1468 by marriage to Francesco I Sforza. She was regent of Marche during the absence of her spouse in 1448. She served as Regent of the Duchy of Milan during the illness of her spouse in 1462, as well as in 1466, between the death of her spouse and until her son, the new Duke, who was absent, was able to return to Milan to assume power.

She was the illegitimate daughter of Filippo Maria Visconti Duke of Milan (son of Gian Galeazzo Visconti) and Agnese del Maino.

She is the mother, among others, of Ludovico Maria Sforza, also known as Ludovico il Moro, and Galeazzo Maria Sforza.
More pictures here https://www.kleio.org/en/history/famtree/vip/829/

 

217) Galeazzo Maria Sforza

Galeazzo Maria Sforza (1444 – 1476). Fifth Duke of Milan from 1466 until his assassination a decade later.

He was born to Francesco Sforza, a popular condottiero and ally of Cosimo de' Medici who would gain the Duchy of Milan in 1450, and Bianca Maria Visconti. He married into the Gonzaga family; on the death of his first wife Dorotea Gonzaga, he married Bona of Savoy.

Father of Gian Galeazzo Sforza , Bianca Maria Sforza and Anna Maria Sforza. He also had three illegitimate children, among them, the famous Caterina Sforza.


More pictures here http://www.kleio.org/en/history/famtree/vip/631/…
and here http://www.kleio.org/en/history/famtree/vip/829/… (he's the Child Jesus).

- "Gian Galeazzo was tall and well built, with the reddish hair and striking good looks of his father..." https://books.google.it/

216) Gian Galeazzo Sforza

Gian Galeazzo Sforza (1469 – 1494), also known as Giovan Galeazzo Sforza. Sixth Duke of Milan. Son of Galeazzo Maria Sforza and Bona of Savoy, and nephew of Ludovico il Moro.

Brother of Anna Maria Sforza and Bianca Maria Sforza. Caterina Sforza was his half-sister. 

In 1480 he married his first cousin Isabella of Aragon. They had four children: Bona Sforza d'Aragona, Queen of Poland,  Francesco (1491-1512), Ippolita (1493-1501) and Bianca (1495-1497).

More pictures here http://www.kleio.org/en/history/famtree/vip/549/…

- "... Gian Galeazzo was tall and well built, with the reddish hair and striking good looks of his father..." https://books.google.it/ 

215) Bona of Savoy, Duchess of Milan

Bona of Savoy, Duchess of Milan (1449 – 1503). Duchess consort of Milan as the second spouse of Galeazzo Maria Sforza, Duke of Milan. Mother of Gian Galeazzo Sforza, Bianca Maria Sforza and Anna Maria Sforza. 

More pictures here http://www.kleio.org/en/history/famtree/vip/711a/…

187) Caterina Sforza

Caterina Sforza (1463 – 1509). Italian noblewoman, Countess of Forlì and Lady of Imola firstly with her husband Girolamo Riario, and after his death as a regent of her son Ottaviano. 

The descendant of a dynasty of noted condottieri, from an early age, Caterina distinguished herself through her bold and impetuous actions taken to safeguard her possessions from possible usurpers and to defend her dominions from attack, when they were involved in political intrigues.

In her private life, Caterina was devoted to various activities, including experiments in alchemy and a love of hunting and dancing.

She was the illegitimate daughter of Galeazzo Maria Sforza and his misterss Lucrezia, wife of Count Gian Piero Landriani, a courtier of the Milanese ducal court and close friend of Galeazzo Maria. She had several half-siblings: Anna Maria Sforza, Bianca Maria Sforza and Gian Galeazzo Sforza.

Her third husband Giovanni il Popolano. She had eight children, among them Ludovico de' Medici and Bianca Riario.

According to Rainessance historian Maike Vogt-Lüerssen, Caterina Sforza was the sitter for many important paintings of her period.
More pictures here http://www.kleio.org/en/history/famtree/vip/073/…