The new duchess
When in 1491, after ten years of engagement, Ludovico finally decided to take Beatrice d'Este as his wife, Galeazzo knew with his affability and his natural charm to earn the favor of the new duchess, becoming his most faithful servant in perpetuity. Not infrequently they are found together in the daily entertainment of the court, as well as in matters of greater importance.
Thus, for example, in 1491, Beatrice wrote to her sister: "every day the illustrious Messer Galeazzo and I, with some other of these courtiers, take pleasure in the game of ball at the mallet after lunch".«Beatrice immediately began a life of violent entertainment mostly in the company of the very elegant Galeazzo Sanseverino, spending February and March in sometimes risky hunts and games in the surrounding castles.»
(Achille Dina, Isabella of Aragon Duchess of Milan and Bari.)
In his letters Galeazzo used to sign himself with the triple surname Sfortia Vicecomes de Sancto Severino, or because through his marriage with Bianca Giovanna he had been "adopted" within the Sforza family or because of his descent from Muzio Attendolo.
A series of letters written in this period to the Marquise Isabella d'Este contain a curious and interminable dispute about who was the best paladin: Orlando or Rinaldo, as well as the story of a trip made by Beatrice d'Este to Cusago and the many amusements of the new duchess. These letters, however, contain only the signature Galeaz Sfortia Vicecomes armorum capitaneus appears.
This generated some confusion among historians, since there was at least one other Galeazzo Visconti his contemporary, also called "messer Vesconte", also a courtier friend of the dukes, who figures as podestà of Annone in 1484, advisor to Duke Gian Galeazzo, invested by the latter in 1488 of the county of Busto Arsizio, ambassador to Charles VIII in 1492 and military commissar of Duke Ludovico in 1495; after the expulsion of the Moro he also passed to the French side.
The name appears several times in the chronicles and letters and it is not possible to establish whether it was always the same person or different, nor above all if it corresponds to the homonymous court poet Galeazzo Visconti. The uncertainty lies in the variability of the names with which at the time it was possible to indicate the same person: Ludovico Sforza himself is sometimes mentioned as "Ludovico Vesconte" and it was not mandatory in the letters to sign with the full surname. However, it is clear that Galeazzo Sanseverino and Galeazzo Visconti were not the same person, as they were mentioned separately in the same context. Doubts remain about the identity of the sender of the letters to the Marquise, however it does not appear that this Galeazzo Visconti also bore the surname Sfortia, also the references in them to the days of leisure spent in the company of the two sisters d'Este and to the great familiarity with the Duchess Beatrice, as well as to a brother named "Gasparo" who could correspond to Fracasso, led to a belief that the sender was in fact Galeazzo Sanseverino.
He tells of having accompanied the Duchess Beatrice on holiday in Cusago and being mounted with her in a cart, where during the journey they sang more than twenty-five songs, "doing a lot of crazy things", then fished, hunted and played ball with many other amusements, returning to Milan after sunset, so much so that - he adds jokingly - in the star behind Beatrice he had almost gone crazy:
We returned to Milan an hour after sunset and presented the whole hunt to the illustrious Lord my Duke of Bari, who took so much pleasure in it that more could not be said, much more than if he had been there in person, and I believe that my Duchess will have made a greater profit than I, because I believe that the illustrious Lord Ludovico will give him Cusago [...] but I have broken my boots and, as I said above, I have gone mad, and these it is the earnings that are made to serve women [...] nevertheless I will have patience, making it successful for my Duchess, to whom I promised not to lack in anything until death.
He also enjoyed the rare privilege of free access to the ducal apartments, if at the end of the letter he reminds the Marquise Isabella of those times when, entering Beatrice's private dressing room, he found the ladies still undressed and intent on styling their hair:
My Madonna Marquise, I just can't forget our life in the evening, and her sweet company, and so I also go to Madama's dressing room, thinking I will find her combing her hair and next to her His Lordship, Theodora [Angelini] and Beatrice [dei Contrari] in shirt sleeves, and with her Violante [de 'Preti] and Maria also undressed, and when I can't find her, I feel sad.
There was no meeting, public or private, at which Galeazzo was not present. He was a participant in all the secrets of the ducal family and, as long as he lived in Milan, he kept in the castle almost a court of his own. In the regency committee, composed of only three members, which - in the event of Ludovico's sudden death - would take over the government, he was in second place immediately after Duchess Beatrice and immediately before Cardinal Ascanio, Moro's brother.
As proof of the very close relationships existing between the three, consider that, in the period of mourning for the death of her mother, Beatrice used to eat meals with the sole company of her husband and son-in-law Galeazzo, and that the latter was very close to her even when, in 1492, a sudden attack of malarial fevers put her first pregnancy at risk. It seems to me that this Messer Galeazzo is Duke of Milan because he can do what he wants and has what he knows how to ask and desire. For the exceptional social climb that, from Roberto's unknown son, had led him to be almost a second duke in Milan, Galeazzo was called "the son of Fortune". Philippe de Commines in his Memoirs justifies the fact by saying that Ludovico "kept him as a son, as he did not yet have any adults".
On the other hand, a link of a sexual nature should not be excluded, if - as Achille Dina, a twentieth-century historian, recalled - this was referred to by that accusation of Francesco Guicciardini, who said of Ludovico: "he was dishonest in the sin of sodomy and, as many say, still as an old man no less patient than agent".
Achille Dina, however, insists on the strong "intimacy" that Galeazzo had rather with the Duchess Beatrice and insinuates that the two were lovers, arguing that "some intimate remorse" was due to her deep sorrow for the death of her stepdaughter:She, who was expecting the birth of another child, went every day to the church of S. Maria delle Grazie, staying there for long hours to pray and cry over Bianca's tomb. Pain from the recent loss? or for Ludovico's relationship with Crivelli? asks her biographer. Or some intimate remorse, which would increase her apprehension about the neighbor
I'm leaving? [...] Perhaps her conduct towards Isabella? or something in her relations with Bianca's husband, the charming Galeazzo Sanseverino, whose intrinsic nature and continuous sharing of pleasures with her cannot fail to strike? "Although it is true that Beatrice wanted him next to her wherever she went and that, a bit like everyone, she probably suffered the fascination, however, none of the contemporaries insinuated any suspicious behavior between the two, and Beatrice demonstrated on several occasions to be "in superlative shameful" and, if not directly in love, at least fond of her husband, as well as praised for his "modest mind". She was also herself to inform her family of the amusements taken with Galeazzo, and none of this would have been possible without the consent of Ludovico, who had gladly encouraged him. More easily one would look at their relationship as the classic one between knight and lady, as his biographer interprets it and as Galeazzo himself declares in one of his letters, referring to his eternal and absolute servitude to Beatrice. He represents in some ways the forerunner of the cavalier servant, a figure that would arise only three centuries later.
A sexual metaphor could in fact be read in a passage by Sanudo, who in 1499 wrote:[...] Signor Galeazo di Sanseverino enjoyed little reputation on the part of the soldiers, nor was he loved because he was not worthy in government, however he was worthy of his spear.
Antonio Perria instead hypothesizes a relationship with Duke Gian Galeazzo, because at the end of 1492 a scandal broke out for which Isabella of Aragon had tried to spread poison to this Rozone, favorite and lover of her husband Gian Galeazzo, as well as to Galeazzo Sanseverino himself. It is not known why, but it was probably out of jealousy of her husband. King Ferrante, informed on the matter, replied that it was impossible that Isabella had tried to poison Galeazzo, who was "loved by them as a son and always proved to be a good servant and relative"; as for Rozone, he said he was surprised that his niece "out of desperation" had not done worse.
But Isabella's retaliation against Galeazzo was perhaps due to the fact that he favored the duke in his betrayals, as did Ludovico who, rather than expelling Rozone from the state, granted him favors and attributions to please his nephew, in such a way that he had become "the first man he had beside him". [...] the illustrious Galeazzo Sanseverino, the very elegant Sforza captain general and, despite appearances, opposed to Isabella due to his ancient hatred
family, as well as for his intimacy with Beatrice and with Moro, so great that, says Guicciardini, "in his bosom all the secrets and all the resolutions of Ludovico Sforza were confined Sanudo assures us, while he was in Alessandria in 1499 Galeazzo took care, more than the army, of dressing elegantly and having fun with women: "this Signor Galeazzo is in Alessandria, waiting for dresses and ladies, it is said hurt him, and he was at odds with lord Alessandro Sforza".
