ATTENDOLI, (MARGARET DE) a Neapolitan Lady of the Fourth Century, Wife of Michael de Cotignola, and Sister of the great Sforza, founder of the House of the Sforzas, Dukes of Milan.
Of obscure birth and situation, this family seemed all to inherit the same heroic spirit. When James, count de la Marche, came to espouse the queen of Naples, Sforza, then grand-constabie, was sent to meet him; but that prince threw him, his relations, and suite into prison, thinking by this means to attain, with more ease, the tyrannic power, which he afterwards assumed. When the news of Sforza's arrest arrived, his sister, with her husband, and many relations who had served with honour in his troops, were at Tricarico. They assembled an army, of which Margaret took the command. The ill-treatment the queen experienced from her new husband, soon made the revolt general, and he was at length besieged in a castle, where the conditions proposed to him were, to be contented with the title of lieutenant-general of the kingdom, and give Sforza his liberty. Knowing the value of this hostage, he sent deputies to Margaret, menacing him with instant death, if Tricarico, was not given up to him. Anxious for her brother, but indignant at the proposition, she instantly formed the resolution of imprisoning the deputies, whose families, alarmed for their safety, ceased not to intercede, till the count consented to set Sforza and his friends at liberty, and to re-instate him in his former situation.
AUBESBINE, (MADELEINE DE L') a French Lady of great Wit and Beauty, Wife of Nicholas de Neuville, Lord of Villeroi, Died on her own demesne, in 1596.
This lady, whose works were never printed, was
