Beatrice d'Este

Beatrice d'Este (29 June 1475 – 3 January 1497) was Duchess of Bari and Milan by marriage to Ludovico Sforza (known as "il Moro"). She was one of the most important personalities of the time and, despite her short life, she was a major player in Italian politics. A woman of culture, an important patron, a leader in fashion: alongside her illustrious husband she made Milan one of the greatest capitals of the European Renaissance. With her own determination and bellicose nature, she was the soul of the Milanese resistance against the enemy French during the first of the Italian Wars, when her intervention was able to repel the threats of the Duke of Orléans, who was on the verge of conquering Milan.

"She [...] showing the courage of a man, and that a stout-hearted one, in face of danger. [...] She was indeed a "virago", in the honourable mediaeval sense of the word. A woman, as Gregorovius defines it, raised by courage and understanding above the level of her sex".