Ada PalmerAll roads lead to Richard III: the Improbable doubly doomed life of Princess Bona of Savoy.
Sharing today’s entry in my fun history stories teaser countdown to the release of “Inventing the Renaissance” 1/?
Bona of Savoy (1449-1503) was a *very* royal princess, a daughter of the Duke Louis of Savoy and of Anne de Lusignan daughter of the King of Cypress. One of her sisters, Charlotte, married King Louis XI of France, making her the aunt of Charles VIII (who will invade Italy partly because of her). 2/?
Bona was the French princess betrothed to England’s Edward IV just as he came to power at the end of the Wars of the Roses, whom Edward spurned in favor of Elizabeth Woodville, in a scene grandly dramatized by Shakespeare in Henry VI Part III. 3/?
Instead of the King of England, Bona married the Duke of Milan, Galeazzo Maria Visconti-Sforza, eldest son of the mercenary Francesco Sforza and his badass wife Bianca Maria Visconti, last of the Visconti “Vipers” of Milan. 4/?
Bona’s husband Galeazzo Maria was tyrannical and unpopular, and in 1476 (when Bona was 27) he was stabbed to death on the steps of his own cathedral by angry nobles. This frontispiece shows one dramatic version of the stabbing. 5/?
Bona tried to govern Milan during the minority of her young children, but was challenged by her husband's brothers, especially Ludovico, who we met in previous threads as the beloved of Galeazzo Sanseverino, part of the polycule threesome that ruled Milan in the 1490s). 6/? https://buff.ly/4gWr3aQ
Ada Palmer (@adapalmer.bsky.social)
Meet one of my favorite Renaissance friends: Galeazzo Sanseverino, a mercenary whom contemporary sources describe as the sexiest thing in pants in Italy, part of the badass polycule threesome that ruled Milan in the early 1490s. Thread 1/? (#HistoryPix Countdown to "Inventing the Renaissance" day 3)
After much civil war, coups and counter-coups, Bona was forced into exile and her son, young Duke Gian Galeazzo Visconti-Sforza, imprisoned by his uncle as Ludovico took the throne for himself. Gian Galeazzo later died in suspicious circumstances in captivity. 7/?
As we know, if Bona had married King Edward, she would have had Richard III for a brother-in-law, which leads to widowhood, and your brother-in-law imprisoning your sons to seize power. But that’s exactly what happened in Milan. BOTH Bona’s potential marriages led to the identical doom! 8/?
Just as the deaths of the Princes in the Tower became meat for art and drama in England, so the dramatic murder of Bona’s Gian Galeazzo inspired tons of later art, especially in the nineteenth-century pre-Raphaelite movement who loved dramatizing the dastardly uncle and poisoned goblet… 9/?
Unlike the sons of Edward IV, Bona’s boy was allowed to live to adulthood, and even marry and have children, in part because evidence suggests he was intellectually disabled so less of a threat to his ambitious uncle, until… 10/?
Bona, and her son’s wife Princess Isabella Maria Visconti-Sforza, kept urging Bona’s nephew King Charles of France to invade Italy and kick Ludovico off the throne to restore the young king’s first-cousin Gian Galeazzo 11/?
When Charles finally came in 1494 (his claim to the throne of Naples and complex Borgia shenanigans were the major motives) it seems Duke Ludovico finally considered his nephew too much of a threat, and him finished off. 12/?
Given that both of Bona’s options lead to evil uncles and murdered sons, which would our ill-starred princess have preferred if she knew? I think Milan, which meant more grandchildren, and while Duchess is a lower title than Queen, Milan was a lot warmer. 13/?
On the other hand, she might have preferred royal descendants to ducal ones, and the English path would have scored her a much bigger role in Shakespeare than just one scene! So it could be a hard call in the end. 14/?
I describe these coups at length in “Inventing the Renaissance,” and I love how switching POV turns hero to villain, as Ludovico & his lover Galeazzo Sanseverino (left) were our favorites in my last thread, but are terrible villains when we take Bona’s POV and mourn her son Gian Galeazzo (right)15/?
More switches of POV and hero and villain to come in the next weeks as we count down to the full-length story! 16/16 https://buff.ly/4j6qkoS
Avi Rappoport (avirr)@adapalmer The switching around of POVs is my favorite! I am looking forward to March
Olga Lovick (she/her)@adapalmer I was just thinking that. (And not just climate -- also food.)
GangstaYid@adapalmer The Duke in the palazzo!
@adapalmer I'm just re-reading Costain's Last Plantagenets, and am exactly at Edward IV's reign.
@adapalmer I missed this tidbit the first time - Lord Hastings refusing to acknowledge the bribe but not refusing to take it. "If you insist, slip it in my pocket." Hilarious and reminiscent of a famous Israeli comedy skit featuring a charlatan rabbi miracle maker.
"Slip the fee in my pocket, but elegantly so I don't feel it."
- Why so you don't feel it?
"Because I deal not in matters of money!!"
"Slip the fee in my pocket, but elegantly so I don't feel it."
- Why so you don't feel it?
"Because I deal not in matters of money!!"
Urdle@adapalmer Hi ! Thanks for sharing this. I think you forgot to add #HistoryPix 😄
Is there any plan to translate "Inventing the Renaissance" in French ?
Is there any plan to translate "Inventing the Renaissance" in French ?