Ludovico II of Saluzzo

Ludovico II del Vasto (23 March 1438 in Saluzzo – 27 January 1504) was marquess of Saluzzo from 1475 until his death. Before his accession as marquis he held the title of Count of Carmagnola.

Son of Ludovico I of Saluzzo and Isabella of Montferrat, he succeeded him as marquis upon the latter's death in 1475. He continued his father's war against Charles I of Savoy, which had depleted Saluzzo's fortunes, but again without notable results.

In 1481 he married his cousin, Giovanna Palaiologo of Montferrat, daughter of William VIII, Marquess of Montferrat. Two years after her death in 1490, he remarried, to Margaret of Foix-Candale.

During the Second Italian War, Ludovico supported Charles VIII of France in his invasion of Italy, fighting alongside him in the battle of Fornovo (1495). When Louis XII of France invaded the Duchy of Milan, Ludovico was again on the French side, culminating in his defeat at the Battle of Garigliano in 1503 against the Spanish forces. His military expenses further denied any possibility of recovery to the exhausted marquisate.

Ludovico was succeeded by his and Marguerite's eldest child, Michele Antonio I of Saluzzo, in 1504. A monument to him is located in the church of San Giovanni at Saluzzo, commissioned by his wife Margaret and executed by Benedetto Briosco in 1508. Ludovico II was also the initiator of the Neo-Gothic Cathedral of Saluzzo and of the first Alpine tunnel, the Buco di Viso (2,880 meters over the sea level).

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