1488 Caterina Sforza refuses to surrender Forli

[Valin]

Caterina Sforza and the Defence of Forli

Caterina Sforza Riario was born in 1463, the illegitimate daughter of Galeazzo Maria Sforza and his mistress Lucrezia Landriani. She was a ‘cultured, beautiful and heroic woman’ possessed of ‘immense physical courage.’ First used as a political pawn, Caterina matured into an indomitable woman who, like Isabella of Castile, challenged the gender conceptions of the Renaissance by proving herself more courageous then any man in both battle and politics.

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Even though her husband was dead and she was captured, Caterina was not about to turn her city over to the rebels. Although she and her children had been captured by the rebels, Caterina convinced them to let her go free so she could convince her loyal soldiers, who were defending the Rocca di Ravaldino, to surrender. She left her six children as hostages. Once inside, however, she ordered a bombardment of the city and yelled to the rebels that she was going to fight them instead. There are two different beliefs among historians as to what she did next. The accepted one is that she brushed off the threats that they would kill her children by lying through her teeth that she was pregnant with another child, who would grow up and get revenge on all of them if they dared harm her other children. This comment was an incredibly smart one on the part of Caterina, as the Rebels were gambling that, among her children, they also had imprisoned Girolamo’s heir. By stating that she had another child, Caterina completely nullified their hold on her, as this other child would inherit everything and, as she said, take revenge. In a way, this was true, as her eldest son Ottaviano Riario was safe in Milan, but Caterina was not in fact pregnant. Nevertheless, this comment (and many more blatantly obscene ones) had its effect. Together with the intervention of the armies of her uncle Lodovico ‘El Moro’ Sforza, and the forces of the furious Raffale Riario, (Both of whom had taken her imprisonment as a personal insult), the rebels were persuaded to surrender.

The other version is far more malicious, and perhaps unsurprisingly supported by Niccolo Machiavelli. Instead of the calculated bluff, Caterina is reported to have, upon hearing that the rebels would kill her children, simply shouted back that she did not care in the slightest about her children as she still possessed the mould for making more. To prove her point, Caterina is then reported to have lifted her skirts to show that the ‘mould’, as it were, was not broken. This version casts Caterina as a heartless gorgon, but lacks the evidence to prove it actually happened. Several eyewitness accounts from the era support the ‘bluff’ version of events. It is more likely that Machiavelli was so impressed by Caterina’s bravery that he decided to add his own spin to the story. Whichever story is true, Caterina became Regent of Forli, ruling in the stead of her eldest son, Ottaviano Riario. Afterwards, both Raffale Riario and Lodovico Sforza vied for control of the city, but Caterina held on to power and managed to cultivate a balance between them. She used them for both financial and political support to protect herself from Florence and Venice, both of whom wanted Forli and Imola, key military locations between the two city states.

 

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I want to believe the 2nd version.