A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Isabella of Arragon
ISABELLA OF ARRAGON
Daughter of Alphonso, Duke of Calabria, married, in 1480, John Galeazzo, Duke of Milan, who, yet in his minority, was under the protection of his uncle, Louis Sforza. When Isabella arrived at Milan, her beauty inspired the protector with a passion for her that proved fatal to her happiness. The lovers having been married only by proxy, Louis contrived to keep them apart, while he attempted to supplant the bridegroom. But Isabella repulsed him with disdain, and exhorted her husband to throw off the yoke of his uncle, and assert his rights.
The protector, artful and politic, attempted by negotiation, to annul the marriage in his own favour; but Alphonso threatened to arm Europe in his son-in-law's cause, and Louis was at length obliged to restore to his nephew his betrothed bride. His love for Isabella was now turned to hatred; and he endeavoured in every way to embitter her life. He married Alphonsina, daughter of the Duke of Ferrara, a woman as haughty and ambitious as Isabella. Compelled to reside under the same roof with her rival, and to see her station and privileges usurped, Isabella found her position so insupportable, that she wrote to her father, and grandfather, Ferdinand, King of Naples, protesting that if no means for her deliverance were devised, she would escape from her sufferings by relinquishing her life.
These princes, however, could not redress her grievances; and, in the mean time, her husband died of a slow poison, recommending his wife and children to his cousin, Charles the Eighth of France, who was passing through Pavia. Hardly had Galeazzo expired, than the party of Louis, saluting him as duke, ordered the bells to be set ringing. During this indecent and insulting display of joy, Isabella immured herself and her children, thus deprived it once of their father and their inheritance, in a dark chamber.
The French having taken Milan, Isabella fled to Naples; bat that city was at length compelled to surrender to the invaders. Isabella's only son was carried captive to France, where it was intended to compel him to become a monk, and where he died by a fall from his horse. Louis Sforza was also taken prisoner and carried to France, where he died.
Isabella retired to a town in Naples, which had been assigned to her as a dower, and where she still maintained an air of state and grandeur. Her daughter. Bona Sforza, married Sigismnnd, King of Poland. Some time previous to her death, Isabella made a journey of devotion to Rome, where she walked to the Vatican, attended by a train of ladies, dressed in bridal ornaments. Her reputation in her youth was unblemished, but in her later years she gave occasion for censure, by admitting the attentions of Prosper Colonua. She died February 11th., 1524.