In 1471 Galeazzo Maria Sforza, Duke of Milan, led a brash entourage of wine-swilling, jewel-bedecked courtiers into Florence. It was Lent. This was not the most auspicious way to begin a diplomatic mission to settle the dispute over Imola, the tiny Romagna fiefdom that Galeazzo had offered to sell to Lorenzo de’Medici. Even Lorenzo, epitome of the parvenu, was stunned by the fanfare. But for all the wrangling, within two years the territory would fall into Papal hands with the dowry of Caterina Sforza.
The Deadly Sisterhood is a wide-ranging historical narrative about the women and power struggles that dominated Italy in the late 15th and early 16th centuries. When Caterina celebrated her marriage with Girolamo Riario, nephew of Pope Sixtus IV, she was doing more than cementing relations between Rome and her native Milan. The union enabled the Pope to demand Imola as part of the dowry; but for this he required extra funds.
Leonie Frieda explores how Lorenzo’s refusal to foot the bill for the land he had failed to obtain for Florence led Sixtus to seek the financial backing of the Pazzi family.
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