Francesco II Sforza, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death
TweetFrancesco II Sforza
Duke of Milan, 1521-24, 1525-35
Date of Birth: 04-Feb-1495
Place of Birth: Milan, Lombardy, Italy
Date of Death: 24-Oct-1535
Profession: monarch
Zodiac Sign: Aquarius 
About Francesco II Sforza
- Francesco II Sforza (February 4, 1495 – October 24, 1535) was Duke of Milan from 1521 until his death.
- He was the last member of the Sforza family to rule Milan. He was the second son of Ludovico Sforza and Beatrice d'Este.
- When Ludovico was ousted from Milan in the course of the Italian Wars, he brought Francesco with him to the court of the Emperor Maximilian I, who had married a Sforza, Francesco's cousin Bianca Maria.
- Francesco was assigned to an ecclesiastical career.
- His father was imprisoned in Loches by Louis XII of France, and died in 1508, but when Charles V re-conquered Milan from the French in 1521, Francesco was appointed its duke, the last of the family to hold that title.
- His sovereignty, however, remained circumscribed by the military occupation of Milan by Spanish troops.He returned to his state, depleted by twenty years of combat, promoting a cultural and economic recovery.
- Francesco fought at the Battle of Bicocca, on the side of the emperor, in 1522.
- In 1526 he switched sides, joining the League of Cognac, together with Francis I of France, Pope Clement VII and the Republic of Florence, and was besieged in the Castello Sforzesco. On May 4, 1534 he married the 12-year-old niece of Charles V, Christina of Denmark, the daughter of Christian II of Denmark and Isabella of Burgundy.
- The union remained childless.
- His death in 1535 sparked the Italian War of 1535.
- His half-brother Giovanni Paolo reclaimed briefly the Duchy of Milan after his death, but died in the same year under mysterious circumstances.
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