it as a fief to his brother Alessandro, the husband of a
niece of Galeazzo. Sforza was the great condottiere who, after the
departure of the Visconti, ascended the throne of Milan as the first
duke of his house. While he was there establishing the ducal line of
Sforza, his brother Alessandro became the founder of the ruling house of
Pesaro.

This brave captain took possession of Pesaro in March, 1445; two years
later he received the papal investiture of the fief. He was married to
Costanza Varano, one of the most beautiful and intellectual women of the
Italian Renaissance.

To him she bore Costanzo and also a daughter, Battista, who later, as
the wife of Federico of Urbino, won universal admiration by her virtues
and talents. The neighboring courts of Pesaro and Urbino were connected
by marriage, and they vied with each other in fostering the arts and
sciences. Another illegitimate daughter of Alessandro's was Ginevra
Sforza--a woman no less admired in her day--celebrated, first as the
wife of Sante and then as that of Giovanni Bentivoglio, Lord of Bologna.

After the death of his wife, Alessandro Sforza married Sveva
Montefeltre, a daughter of Guidantonio of Urbino. After a happy reign he
died April 3, 1473, leaving his possessions to his son.

A year later Costanzo Sforza married Camilla Marzana d'Aragona, a
beautiful and spirituelle princess of the royal house of Naples. He
himself was brilliant and liberal. He died in 1483, when only
thirty-six, leaving no legitimate heirs, his sons Giovanni and Galeazzo
being natural children. His widow Camilla thenceforth conducted the
government of Pesaro for herself and her stepson Giovanni until
November, 1489, when she compelled him to assume entire control of it.

Such was the history of the Sforza family of Pesaro, into which Lucretia
now entered as the wife of this same Giovanni.

The domain of the Sforza at that time embraced the city of Pesaro and a
number of smaller possessions, called castles or villas; for example, S.
Angelo in Lizzola, Candelara, Montebaroccio, Tomba di Pesaro,
Montelabbate, Gradara, Monte S. Maria, Novilara, Fiorenzuola, Castel di
Mezzo, Ginestreto, Gabicce, Monteciccardo, and Monte Gaudio. In
addition, Fossombrone was taken by the Sforzas from the Malatesta.

The principality belonged, as we have seen, for a long time to the
Church, then to the Malatesta, and later to the Sforza, who, under the
title of vicars, held it as a hereditary fief,