30 Facts About Galeazzo Sanseverino

Galeazzo Sanseverino was first the favorite of Ludovico il Moro and Beatrice d'Este, then of Louis XII and Francis I of France, as well as a sworn enemy of Gian Giacomo Trivulzio.

Galeazzo Sanseverino was the third son of the famous leader Roberto Sanseverino, first Count of Caiazzo and Giovanna da Correggio.

Galeazzo Sanseverino made his first military experiences in the company of his father Roberto and in 1475 he obtained, together with his brothers, his first conduct in the pay of Florence.

In 1488 Galeazzo Sanseverino was sent to the rescue of Caterina Sforza barricaded in the Rocca di Ravaldino following the conspiracy of the Bears.

Galeazzo Sanseverino had a strong enmity with the Marquis of Mantua Francesco Gonzaga, always for the same reasons: the Milanese conduct of the Marquis, in fact, ended at the very beginning of 1489, shortly after Galeazzo had obtained the title of captain general.

When in 1491, after ten years of engagement, Ludovico finally decided to take Beatrice d'Este as his wife, Galeazzo Sanseverino knew with his affability and his natural charm to earn the favor of the new duchess, becoming his most faithful servant in perpetuity.

Galeazzo Sanseverino tells of having accompanied the Duchess Beatrice on holiday in Cusago and being mounted with her in a cart, where during the journey they sang more than twenty-five songs, "doing a lot of crazy things", then fished, hunted and played ball with many other amusements, returning to Milan after sunset, so much so that - he adds jokingly - in the star behind Beatrice he had almost gone crazy:.

Galeazzo Sanseverino enjoyed the rare privilege of free access to the ducal apartments, if at the end of the letter he reminds the Marquise Isabella of those times when, entering Beatrice's private dressing room, he found the ladies still undressed and intent on styling their hair:.

Galeazzo Sanseverino was a participant in all the secrets of the ducal family and, as long as he lived in Milan, he kept in the castle almost a court of his own.

Achille Dina insists on the strong "intimacy" that Galeazzo Sanseverino had rather with the Duchess Beatrice and insinuates - but without adducing any concrete evidence to support this hypothesis - that the two were lovers, arguing that "some intimate remorse" was due to her deep sorrow for the death of her stepdaughter:.

Galeazzo Sanseverino was herself to inform her family of the amusements taken with Galeazzo, and none of this would have been possible without the consent of Ludovico, who had gladly encouraged him.

Galeazzo Sanseverino represents in some ways the forerunner of the cavalier servant, a figure that would arise only three centuries later.

King Ferrante, informed on the matter, replied that it was impossible that Isabella had tried to poison Galeazzo Sanseverino, who was "loved by them as a son and always proved to be a good servant and relative"; as for Rozone, he said he was surprised that his niece "out of desperation" had not done worse.

Since Galeazzo Sanseverino was sluggish, and there were rumors that his brother Fracasso was playing a double game with the king of France, Beatrice herself went to the military camp to urge him to move against the enemy.

Galeazzo Sanseverino was deeply saddened by it and remained locked up for many days in certain damp rooms of the castle of Milan that harmed his health, already debilitated by a recent illness.

Galeazzo Sanseverino himself had been ill with fevers in recent months.

Galeazzo Sanseverino fell prisoner of the French, together with his lord Ludovico Sforza, after the battle of Novara, where, hit by a stone, he was wounded in the face.

Galeazzo Sanseverino lost the counties and lordships of Bobbio, Castel San Giovanni, Val Tidone and Voghera reassigned by the French.

Francesco did not accept the duel, but responded with a long letter full of insults and vulgarity, in which he essentially accused Galeazzo Sanseverino of being a recommended without art or part, of having always lived at the expense of others, without enjoying anything of his own, opposing him instead his own noble and deserved hereditary condition.

Galeazzo Sanseverino accuses him of having been only the ruin of Ludovico Sforza, who "does not find himself hora fora of the kingdom he possesses captivated" if it had not been for his own cause, and of having earned everything he possesses only by prostituting himself, moreover through passive sodomy, while Francis proudly boasts of having practiced exclusively active sodomy.

In Leonardo's last years spent in Amboise, Galeazzo Sanseverino was still close to his old friend with whom he shared pleasant memories of the Milanese time.

In 1517 Galeazzo Sanseverino won a lawsuit against his enemy Jacques de Trivulce, Marshal of France, regaining his properties in Milan which Trivulce had confiscated.

Galeazzo Sanseverino accompanied Francis I of France on his encounter with Henry VIII of England at Calais in 1520.

Galeazzo Sanseverino died in 1525 during the famous Battle of Pavia, while attempting to defend King Francis I from capture, where the French cavalry was decimated by a force of 1,500 Basque arquebusiers.

Crescenzi claimed that Galeazzo Sanseverino had a daughter named Anna, but this according to other historians is to be excluded, as Galeazzo Sanseverino did not leave succession and his fiefs returned to the Dal Verme.

Galeazzo Sanseverino was a good-looking man, unbeatable champion of the rides, loved by women not only for his charm, elegance and well-groomed physique, but for his culture and way of speaking; he knew Latin, French and German.

Galeazzo Sanseverino was educated by masters of arms and the scholar Pietro del Monte.

Messer Galeazzo Sanseverino, who was a beautiful jouster, but for cowardice and little experience in the military art not at all capable of leading a military camp.

Galeazzo Sanseverino was persuasive, elegant in his language as well as in his habits, expert in matters of war, and passed for the most skilful joust that could be seen.

In support of this thesis, Piero Misciatelli recalls that Galeazzo Sanseverino was in fact a great friend and protector of Leonardo, who frequented his home in Milan, and fra' Luca Pacioli and that, just like Ludovico and Beatrice, he must certainly have been passionate about music.