Caterina Sforza

Caterina Sforza
Lady of Imola Countess of Forlì
La dama dei gelsomini, by Lorenzo di Credi (Pinacoteca Civica di Forlì), presumed portrait of Caterina Sforza.
Spouse(s)	Girolamo Riario Giacomo Feo Giovanni de' Medici il Popolano
Issue Bianca Riario, Lady of Faenza, Countess and Marchioness of San Secondo Ottaviano Riario Cesare Riario Giovanni Livio Riario Galeazzo Maria Riario Francesco Sforzino Riario Bernardino (later Carlo) Feo Ludovico (later Giovanni) de' Medici
Noble family	Sforza
Father	Galeazzo Maria Sforza, Duke of Milan
Mother	Lucrezia Landriani
Born	1463 Milan, Italy
Died	28 May 1509 (aged 46) Florence, Italy

Caterina Sforza (1463 – 28 May 1509), was an Italian noblewoman and Countess of Forlì and Lady of Imola firstly with her husband Girolamo Riario, and after his death as a regent of her son Ottaviano.

Caterina was the illegitimate daughter of Galeazzo Maria Sforza, Duke of Milan and Lucrezia, the wife of the courtier Gian Piero Landriani, a close friend of the Duke. She was raised in the refined Milanese court. The descendant of a dynasty of noted condottieri, Caterina, from an early age, distinguished herself by 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, among which were experiments in alchemy and a love of hunting and dancing. She had a large number of children, of whom only the youngest, Captain Giovanni dalle Bande Nere, inherited the forceful, militant character of his mother. Following Caterina's resistance to Cesare Borgia, she had to face his fury and he took her prisoner. Upon regaining her liberty following her imprisonment in Rome, she led a quiet life in Florence. In the final years of her life, she confided to a monk: "Se io potessi scrivere tutto, farei stupire il mondo" (If I could write everything, I would shock the world).

Caterina Sforza was born in Milan in early 1463, the illegitimate daughter of Galeazzo Maria Sforza by his mistress, Lucrezia Landriani. It's believed that she spent the first years of her life with her mother's relatives. The bond between mother and daughter was never interrupted: in fact, Lucrezia followed Caterina's growth and was always close to her in the crucial moments of her life, even in the last few years that she spent in the city of Florence.

Upon the succession of Galeazzo Maria Sforza as Duke of Milan in 1466, following the death of his father Francesco, Galeazzo arranged for his four children by Lucrezia Landriani to come to court: Carlo (born in 1461; later Count of Magenta), Caterina, Alessandro (born in 1465; later Lord of Francavilla) and Chiara (born in 1467; by her first marriage, she became Countess dal Verme di Sanguinetto and Lady of Vigevano; by her second marriage, she became Lady of Novi). The children were entrusted to their paternal grandmother, Bianca Maria Visconti. In 1466 Galeazzo had married Dorotea Gonzaga, but after her death he remarried to Bona of Savoy on 9 May 1468, who eventually adopted them all.