BIANCA SFORZA 
Castello, and Galeazzo di Sanseverino appeared as 
captain of the ducal armies at the head of the nuptial 
procession, when the bride, with her fair locks flowing 
over her shoulders, returned to the palace through the 
decorated streets. On this auspicious day his young 
wife, clad in white satin and pearls, rode in the chariot 
of state, between the two duchesses, Isabella and 
Beatrice, and took her seat with them on the tribunal 
in front of the high altar, when the Archbishop placed 
the crown with the cross and orb of the world on the 
Empress’s head. 
Bianca was present again, in the following spring, 
when Beatrice received King Charles VIII at Asti, 
and was among the Milanese ladies, whose beauty 
and rich attire made so deep an impression on this 
monarch. A French courtier, writing to the King’s 
sister, Anne de Beaujeu, describes the young duchess’s 
robe of gold and green brocade, her crimson silk hat 
with its tall white plumes, and long coil of hair glitter¬ 
ing with pearls, and dwells with admiration on the 
gallant way in which she rode, sitting up on her horse 
as erect as if she had been a man. “With her on 
horseback came a troop of twenty ladies, and among 
them the lovely young wife of the Magnifico Galeazzo,” 
whose husband had lately been sent on a mission to 
the French Court, and was well known to Charles and 
his suite. The King—a little, ugly man, with large 
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