Federico da Montefeltro

Federico da Montefeltro (7 June 1422 – 10 September 1482) was a leading condottiero of the Italian Renaissance, known for both military skill and intellectual pursuits. He took control of Urbino in 1444 after his half-brother Oddantonio was assassinated, though he only held the title of count at first; he was made duke in 1474. His rule saw the construction of a vast library, second in Italy only to the Vatican’s, with its own team of scribes, and a humanist court housed in a Ducal Palace designed by Luciano Laurana and Francesco di Giorgio Martini.

Born at Castello di Petroia in Gubbio, Federico was acknowledged as the illegitimate son of Guidantonio da Montefeltro and legitimized by Pope Martin V two years later. Rumors persisted, recorded by Pope Pius II among others, that he was actually Guidantonio’s grandson—the child of Guidantonio’s illegitimate daughter Aura and her husband Bernardino Ubaldini della Carda, passed off as his own son.

After the Peace of Ferrara in 1433, he lived as a hostage in Venice and Mantua. He was knighted by Emperor Sigismund in 1437 and married Gentile Brancaleoni that same year. At sixteen, he began his military career under Niccolò Piccinino.

Following Oddantonio’s assassination, Federico seized Urbino but, lacking the ducal title and facing financial troubles, continued working as a condottiero. His first contract was for Francesco I Sforza, with 300 knights, and he earned a reputation for loyalty among his men. He helped Sforza take Pesaro, receiving Fossombrone for 13,000 florins, which angered Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta. When Sforza left for Lombardy, Malatesta incited a revolt in Fossombrone, but Federico retook it in three days.

After six years serving Florence, he was hired by Sforza, now Duke of Milan, in 1450. A joust cost him his right eye; surgeons later removed the damaged bridge of his nose and eyelid. In 1453, the wound reopened, nearly costing him his remaining eye.

The Peace of Lodi in 1454 reduced his military opportunities. The deaths of King Alfonso and his illegitimate son Buonconte in 1458 deepened his gloom. His fortunes turned when Pope Pius II, a fellow humanist, made him Gonfaloniere of the Holy Roman Church. After campaigns in the Kingdom of Naples, he defeated Malatesta decisively at the Cesano river near Senigallia in 1462, capturing Fano and Senigallia the next year and taking Malatesta prisoner.

The pope granted him vicar status over the conquered lands. In 1464, Pope Paul II sent him to push back the Anguillara, reclaiming much of northern Lazio. He captured Cesena and Bertinoro in Romagna in 1465.

After Francesco Sforza’s death in 1466, Federico assisted his son Galeazzo Sforza in governing Milan and led a campaign against Bartolomeo Colleoni. He fought at the Battle of Molinella in 1467. In 1469, Paul II ordered him to occupy Rimini after Malatesta’s death, but Federico, fearing papal power might threaten Urbino, kept the city for himself. After defeating papal forces on 30 August 1469, he ceded Rimini to Malatesta’s son Roberto.

The conflict was resolved when Pope Sixtus IV married his nephew Giovanni Della Rovere to Federico’s daughter Giovanna and granted Federico the title of Duke of Urbino in 1474; Malatesta married his other daughter Elisabetta. Federico then fought against his former patrons, the Florentines, as part of the pope’s plan to create a state for his nephew Girolamo Riario. In 1478, he was involved in the Pazzi conspiracy and, after its failure, attacked the territory of Lorenzo de’ Medici. Following the death of his second wife Battista Sforza, the entry trails off.