Alessandro Sforza, Lord of Pesaro

Alessandro Sforza (21 October 1409 – 3 April 1473) was an Italian condottiero and lord of Pesaro, the first of the Pesaro line of the Sforza family.

Biography He was born in Cotignola in 1409, an illegitimate son of the famous condottiero Muzio Attendolo Sforza.

Thus Alessandro and his elder brother were educated in Ferrara where their mother resided.

Military career Alessandro collaborated actively with his brother Francesco in his military campaign, and with him he conquered Milan, Alessandria and Pesaro. In 1435, at Fiordimonte, he won the battle in which the riotous Niccolò Fortebraccio was killed. In 1442 at Assisi he commanded the troops besieged by Pope Eugene IV's condottiero Francesco Piccinino. He was forced to leave the city, abandoning the city to ravages and massacres. In 1444 he obtained the lordship of Pesaro by Galeazzo Malatesta. Here he enlarged the Ducal Palace to conform it to the Renaissance standards.

During the Wars in Lombardy in support of Francesco he presided Parma and, in February 1446, he proclaimed himself lord of the city. After Francesco's conquest of the Duchy of Milan, the Peace of Lodi (1454) confirmed him in Parma.

In 1464 he obtained by Pope Pius II the seigniory of Gradara, which he defended by the Malatesta attempts of reconquest.

In 1465 the condottiero Jacopo Piccinino had been summoned to Naples to receive the position as viceroy of Abruzzi and serve as leader of King Ferdinand I of Naples's troops. Instead Piccinino was arrested, and died under mysterious circumstances. Suspicion pointed to his death being due to his father-in-law Francesco Sforzas machinations.

Piccinino had been married just nine months earlier to Francesco's illegitimate daughter and Alessandro's niece Drusiana. Drusiana believing her father's guilt and being pregnant sought refuge with her uncle in Teramo.

Death He died in 1473

Alessandro