Note 20 — Chapter II · The Condottieri and the Rise of the Nobles

A poet of Aquila, Ciunillo, points to a more tragic cause of Braccio’s death. We are given to understand that young Francesco Sforza (the son of Braccio’s great rival Attendolo Sforza, who had met his death a few months previously whilst crossing the river Pescara on his way to relieve Aquila) gave the surgeon’s arm a slight nudge as he was cleaning the wound, and drove the sharp instrument straight into Braccio’s brain. Nothing that we know of Francesco Sforza’s character (he was afterwards Duke of Milan) would lead us to suppose him capable of such a deed.