BIANCA SFORZA 
is always with His Imperial Majesty, who seems very 
fond of him.” 1 
In the following year Galeazzo was sent to Paris by 
the Emperor to conduct negotiations for the release of 
Lodovico with the French King, and exerted himself 
actively on the captive prince’s behalf. But on this 
point Louis XII was inflexible, and when all efforts to 
obtain the unhappy Duke’s deliverance proved vain, 
the good ofBces of Cardinal di San Severino obtained 
leave for his brother to return to Milan. Here 
Galeazzo quickly won the friendship of the powerful 
Viceroy, Georges d’Amboise, Cardinal de Rouen, who 
in 1505 gave him back the houses and lands which he 
had formerly owned, including his wife’s dower-city of 
Voghera. A year later he followed the Cardinal to the 
French Court, where he soon rose high in the King’s 
favour, and was appointed Grand Ecuyer, and Knight 
of the Order of S. Michel. In 1507, he accompanied 
Louis to Milan, and was a conspicuous figure in the 
tournament that was held on the Piazza del Castello, 
the scene of his former exploits. Here he met many 
old friends whom he had known at Lodovico’s Court 
—the painter Leonardo and the Marchioness Isabella, 
who was herself present at the banquet in the Rocchetta, 
and with the strange callousness that marked the men 
and women of this age, danced with King Louis in the 
1 Diarii, iv. 129. 
19 7 
