A certain self-confidence could not be denied to the Duke of Milan Ludovico Sforza. Medievalist Jakob Burkhardt discovered in an Italian archive ever this one bon mot from him: “Pope Alexander is my chaplain, Emperor Maximilian my condottiere [legeraanvoerder]Venice is my chamberlain and the King of France is my errand boy, who must come and go as I say.”
Tough language for a man who was ‘only’ the duke of an Italian city-state. His father Francesco was the bastard of a mercenary leader, but had managed to gain the Duchy of Milan. He received a large number of children, of which Ludovico was the fourth son. Because of his dark skin and hair, Francesco jokingly called the boy ‘the Moor’ – a nickname that was widely adopted.
A fourth son would normally never have come close to power, but Ludovico was no normal boy: after his eldest brother became duke, the Moor before him was active and successful in diplomacy and on the battlefield. When his brother was murdered in 1476, he seized his opportunity.
Gian Galeazzo, the victim’s son, was only seven years old at this time. Italy was torn apart by conflicts between city states in the fifteenth century and Milan was vulnerable now that a child held sway there. Fortunately, Ludovico was there to assist his nephew with advice and assistance. To do this, he first pushed his mother aside (she would later make several attempts to kill him) and had her most important advisor beheaded.
Initially as regent and when Gian Galeazzo died in 1494 (poisoned by the Moor, so the rumors went) as duke, Ludovico now had power in Milan. He played the geopolitical game of the Renaissance with verve. For example, he was first an ally of the king of Naples, but then supported Charles VIII of France in a war with that southern kingdom. When Charles proved too successful, Ludovico helped Venice expel the French invader.
Amid all this armed scheming, he also emerged as a patron of the arts. The duke could not enjoy this for long, because the new French king Louis XII, together with Venice and part of the dissatisfied Milanese population, managed to drive him out. He found shelter for a while with Emperor Maximilian in Germany, but when the Moor returned to Italy in 1500 with an army of Swiss mercenaries, they turned out not to want to fight for him once on the battlefield.
Ludovico tried to escape in disguise, but was recognized and taken into captivity to France. After trying to escape, he was thrown into the dungeon of the castle of Loches in 1508. A few months later the man who thought the King of France was his errand boy died there.