Bianca Maria Sforza - Marriages

Marriages

In January 1474, when Bianca was not quite two years old, she married her first cousin Philibert I, Duke of Savoy, the son of her uncle Amadeus IX of Savoy, and Yolande of France. Duke Philibert died in the spring of 1482, leaving Bianca a widow at the age of ten. She returned to Milan. She was not given much of an education, but was allowed to indulge her own interests, which was mainly needle work.

On 16 March 1494, in Hall, Tyrol, she married secondly, the King of the Romans, Maximilian I, who had been a widower since the tragic death of his much-loved first wife Mary of Burgundy on 27 March 1482, when she was fatally injured after falling from her horse. Her second marriage was arranged by her uncle, who wanted recognition and the title of Duke confirmed by the Emperor; in exchange, the Emperor received a large dowry along with Bianca. Her magnificent retinue on her way to her wedding aroused much attention.

At her wedding, Bianca wore a bodice "with eighty pieces of the jeweler's art pinned thereon, with each piece consisting of one ruby and four pearls". She also brought her husband a rich dowry of 400,000 ducats, and through his marriage, Maximilian was able to assert his right to the Imperial overlordship of Milan. This angered Anne of France, regent of France for her brother King Charles VIII, and brought about French intervention in Italy, thus inaugurating the lengthy Italian Wars.

Maximilian and Bianca's marriage was unhappy; Maximilian said that she may be as beautiful as his first spouse but not as wise. He considered Bianca to be uneducated, overly talkative, naive, wasteful with money, and careless. It happened several times that he left her behind as security when he could not pay for his rooms on trips. He did wish to have children with her, but all their attempts failed: despite Bianca's several pregnancies, none produced a living child. She very much liked his children, but was criticized for forgetting her dignity when she sat on the floor with them to play. After 1500, Maximilian lost all interest in her. She lived with her own court of Milanese people in various castles in the Tirol.

Maximilian took the title of Holy Roman Emperor Elect in 1508. Bianca was, by marriage, Empress of the Holy Roman Empire.

Bianca had no children of her own. She had two stepchildren from Maximilian's marriage to Mary of Burgundy, Philip the Handsome, who married Joanna of Castile, and Archduchess Margaret of Austria, who married firstly, John, Prince of Asturias and secondly Philibert II, Duke of Savoy.

Bianca Maria Sforza died at Innsbruck on 31 December 1510. She was buried at Stams.

A noteworthy portrait of Bianca Maria Sforza by Ambrogio de Predis hangs in the National Gallery of Art of the United States in Washington, D.C.