Was Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta a uxoricide? New Research on the Premature Death of Polissena Sforza († 1 June 1449)

This short article aims to examine, in light of recent historiographical investigations, the death of the twenty-one-year-old Polissena, natural daughter of Francesco Sforza and second wife of Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta, lord of Rimini. A careful re-reading of the coeval and posthumous testimonies, supported by an in-depth study of archival documents, allows to acquit Malatesta from the charge of uxoricide, and to historically contextualise the fierce defamatory campaign carried out by his political opponents, especially his archenemy Pope Pius II. A critical comparison of sources demonstrates that Polissena was neither strangled, nor poisoned, but died infected by the plague, which raged in Rimini in 1449. Like many women of her class and of her time, she was sacrificed to family ambitions; nevertheless, fate wanted not only her illegitimate birth to be object of speculation, but her premature death, too.