The descendant of a dynasty of noted condottieri, from an early age, Caterina distinguished herself through her bold and impetuous actions taken to safeguard her possessions from possible usurpers and to defend her dominions from attack, when they were involved in political intrigues.

In the final years of her life, she confided to a monk: "Se io potessi scrivere tutto, farei stupire il mondo" ("If I could write everything that happened, I would shock the world").

[22] The Sacred College asked Girolamo to leave Rome, offering in return the confirmation of his lordship over Imola and Forlì, the military post of captain-general of the Church, and 8,000 ducats in compensation for the damages to his property.

According to one rumour, when they threatened to kill her children, Caterina, standing in the walls of the fortress exposed her genitals and said: "Fatelo, se volete: impiccateli pure davanti a me ... qui ho quanto basta per farne altri!"

[31] After a meeting on 23 September 1494, Caterina was persuaded by the Duke of Calabria Ferrandino d'Aragona to support King Alfonso II of Naples and prepared to defend Imola and Forlì.

Caterina, very angry, considered herself betrayed by the Neapolitan allies and passed on the side of the French, who had devastated her lands and massacred her subjects, therefore Ferrandino, having learned the news, under a relentless downpour was forced to leave Faenza with his men and move in the direction of Cesena.

Note in this regard the chronicler forlivese Leone Cobelli that, while Ferrandino always behaved honestly, Caterina sent men behind him to rob him, albeit unsuccessfully:[32] Those of Bertenoro and Cesena did not want to give him more provisions: where the Duke of Calabria and he were reluctant.

But we have given him well credit, for people were sent after him to steal and take away horses, weapons and robes.Charles VIII, however, preferred to avoid the Romagna and cross the Apennines, following the road of the Cisa pass.

The numerical superiority of the Italian coalition served little purpose, the end of the day, due to a lack of organization and the ineffective use of light cavalry and infantry Fornovo and the French Kind was able to withdraw to France.

[b] The rumours of a possible marriage between Giovanni and Caterina and that Ottaviano Riario had accepted the post of Condottiero from Florence threatened the Venetians,[c] and alarmed the lords of the League and the Duke of Milan.

According to Machiavelli, the defense operations were misdirected by Giovanni da Casale:[58] "The poorly built fortress and the scant prudence of the defender, therefore, brought disgrace to the magnanimous enterprise of the Countess".

To justify Caterina's imprisonment, Pope Alexander VI accused her of trying to kill him in November 1499 with letters impregnated with poison, as a response to the papal bull which had deprived the countess of her fiefdoms.

[62] An inconclusive and unfinished trial took place, and Caterina remained imprisoned until 30 June 1501, when she was released by Yves d'Allègre, who had come to Rome with the army of Louis XII for the conquest of the Kingdom of Naples.

Alexander VI alleged that Caterina signed documents renouncing all of her fiefs, because in the meantime his son Cesare, with the acquisition of Pesaro, Rimini, and Faenza, was appointed Duke of Romagna.

The new Pope was favourable to restoring the lordships of Imola and Forlì to the Riarios, but the populace of both cities declared that a majority of the people opposed the return of the Countess, so that the domain passed instead to Antonio Maria Ordelaffi on 22 October 1503.

[70] Her body was placed in a small tomb in the chapel of Le Murate in Florence, a convent of nuns whom Caterina had befriended during her time in that city,[71] and where she had kept a cell as a spiritual retreat.

She wore a satin robe with two arms of trawl, a black velvet caper on the French, a man's girdle, and scarsella full of golden ducats; a sickle for the use of retort next to it, and among the soldiers at the foot, and on horseback was feared much, because that woman with weapons in hand was proud and cruel.

She was the non-legitimate daughter of Count Francesco Sforza, the first captain of his time and to whom she was very similar in soul and daring, and she did not lack, being adorned with singular virtue, of some vice not small nor vulgar.

"[72]Marin Sanudo called her "female almost virago, cruelest", in relation to the massacre she made of the children and pregnant women of the conspirators, following the death of her second husband Giacomo Feo.

[83] In particular, the beautiful Giovanni da Casale is defined by Francesco Guicciardini as "a man of the most vile nation, but who came to some degree honored because in the prime of his age he had been grateful to Ludovico Sforza, and then famous for the well-known love of that Madonna [Caterina]".

François de Beaucaire says of he: "He was born of an obscure place, and a homunculus of the lowest strength, since as an adolescent for the superiority of beauty he was in delights with Ludovico Sforza, he had obtained an honorable military rank".

These rumors, however, aroused the popular imagination to such an extent that there was talk of certain wells ending in sharp razors into which Catherine threw her political opponents and her old lovers after having lured them by deception.

[86] Even Galeazzo Sanseverino, whom Caterina wanted as her fourth husband, was considered a beautiful man,[79] and was in fact favored (much more than Giovanni da Casale) of her uncle Ludovico.

[87] Known is then the "strange embrace" with the Duke of Calabria Ferrandino d'Aragona who, being a good-looking young man and knowing the passion of the countess, presented himself to her all "tight and Neapolitan beautifully dressed", in order to earn the political alliance.

In her book The Warrior Queens: Boadicea's Chariot, British historian Antonia Fraser presents Caterina Sforza as a contrasting figure to her contemporary Isabella I of Castile.

Fraser accounts for this by pointing out that Isabella's actions were sanctioned by the Church, as they were carried out in the name of Catholicism, whilst Caterina's were motivated by the personal, secular desire to preserve her property and rights.

[96] For example in Experimenti Caterina wrote about was "elisir vitae, an elixir capable of conferring perpetual health and youth" which is described "principal goal of therapeutic alchemy.

"[102] Machiavelli describes the incident and its context as follows: Some conspirators of Furli [sic] killed the Count Girolamo, their lord, and took his wife and children, who were of tender age, prisoners.

The pregnancy is believed to have been a ruse, but with the conspirators not having any reinforcements and Caterina's forces approaching, with her children's usefulness as hostages rendered meaningless, and facing threats of vengeance for the murder of her husband, they had no choice but to retreat.

"[102] According to Italian politician and author Pier Desiderio Pasolini, "Catherine's admirable defence of the Castle of Forli soon became a sort of epopee, adorned by popular fancy and enriched by the boastful additions of those who had taken part in it.