Francesco I Sforza was an Italian condottiero who founded the Sforza dynasty in the duchy of Milan, ruling as its duke from 1450 until his death.
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15 Facts About Francesco Sforza
2.
Francesco Sforza was instrumental in the Treaty of Lodi which ensured peace in the Italian realms for a time by ensuring a strategic balance of power.
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3.
Francesco Sforza died in 1466 and was succeeded as duke by his son, Galeazzo Maria Sforza.
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4.
Francesco Sforza was born in San Miniato, Tuscany, one of the seven illegitimate sons of the condottiero Muzio Sforza and Lucia da Torsano.
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5.
Francesco Sforza spent his childhood in Tricarico, the marquisate of which he was granted in 1412 by King Ladislaus of Naples.
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6.
Francesco Sforza later proved himself to be an expert tactician and a very skilled field commander.
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7.
Francesco Sforza regained his status after leading an expedition against Lucca.
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9.
Francesco Sforza created an efficient system of taxation that generated enormous revenues for the government, his court became a center of Renaissance learning and culture, and the people of Milan grew to love him.
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10.
Francesco Sforza aimed to conquer Genoa, then an Angevin possession; when a revolt broke out there in 1461, he had Spinetta Campofregoso elected as Doge, as his puppet.
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11.
Francesco Sforza was the first European ruler to follow a foreign policy based on the concept of the balance of power, and the first native Italian ruler to conduct extensive diplomacy outside the peninsula to counter the power of threatening states such as France.
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12.
Francesco Sforza's policies succeeded in keeping foreign powers from dominating Italian politics for the rest of the century.
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13.
Francesco Sforza accepted and became a knight of the Garter in 1463.
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14.
Francesco Sforza was succeeded as duke by his son, Galeazzo Maria Sforza.
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15.
Francesco Sforza had an unspecified number of illegitimate children.
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