Niccolò Fortebraccio also known as Niccolò della Stella, was an Italian

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 condottiero.

Born in Sant'Angelo in Vado

Sant'Angelo in Vado

Sant'Angelo in Vado is a comune in the Province of Pesaro e Urbino in the Italian region Marche, located about 90 km west of Ancona and about 50 km southwest of Pesaro....

, he was the son of Stella, sister of Braccio da Montone

Braccio da Montone

frame|Braccio da Montone.Braccio da Montone , born Andrea Fortebracci, and also known as Braccio Fortebraccio, was an Italian condottiero.-Biography:...

. His half-brother Oddo and his cousin Carlo were also condottieri

Condottieri

thumb|Depiction of [[Farinata degli Uberti]] by [[Andrea del Castagno]], showing a 15th century condottiero's typical attire.Condottieri were the mercenary soldier leaders of the professional, military free companies contracted by the Italian city-states and the Papacy, from the late Middle Ages...

.

In 1426 and 1429, he is mentioned at the service of the Republic of Florence

Republic of Florence

The Republic of Florence , or the Florentine Republic, was a city-state that was centered on the city of Florence, located in modern Tuscany, Italy. The republic was founded in 1115, when the Florentine people rebelled against the Margraviate of Tuscany upon Margravine Matilda's death. The...

. in the latter occasion he was sent against Volterra

Volterra

Volterra, known to the ancient Etruscans as Velathri, to the Romans as Volaterrae, is a town and comune in the Tuscany region of Italy.-History:...

 and Lucca

Lucca

Lucca is a city and comune in Tuscany, central Italy, situated on the river Serchio in a fertile plainnear the Tyrrhenian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Lucca...

, but, together with Guidantonio da Montefeltro

Guidantonio da Montefeltro

Guidantonio da Montefeltro was count of Urbino in Italy from 1403 until his death.In 1403, at the death of his father Antonio, Guidantonio inherited the family lands in the region of Italy called the Marche. Later he abandoned the Papal suzerainty and allied with King Ladislaus of Naples, who made...

, he was defeated by Niccolò Piccinino

Niccolò Piccinino

Niccolò Piccinino was an Italian condottiero.-Biography:He was born at Perugia, was the son of a butcher.He began his military career in the service of Braccio da Montone, who at that time was waging war against Perugia on his own account, and at the death of his chief, shortly followed by that of...

 in 1430. The following year Pope Eugene IV

Pope Eugene IV

Pope Eugene IV , born Gabriele Condulmer, was pope from March 3, 1431, to his death.-Biography:He was born in Venice to a rich merchant family, a Correr on his mother's side. Condulmer entered the Order of Saint Augustine at the monastery of St. George in his native city...

 ordered him to recapture Città di Castello

Città di Castello

Città di Castello is a city and comune in the province of Perugia, in the northern part of the Umbria region of Italy. It is situated on a slope of the Apennines, on the flood plain of the river Tiber. The city is north of Perugia and south of Cesena on the S3bis. It is connected to the A1...

, but Fortebraccio was pushed back. Despite this setback, Eugene made him gonfaloniere of the Papal Army with the task to halt emperor Sigismund

Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor

Sigismund of Luxemburg KG was King of Hungary, of Croatia from 1387 to 1437, of Bohemia from 1419, and Holy Roman Emperor for four years from 1433 until 1437, the last Emperor of the House of Luxemburg. He was also King of Italy from 1431, and of Germany from 1411...

's march in Tuscany

Tuscany

Tuscany is a region in Italy. It has an area of about 23,000 square kilometres and a population of about 3.75 million inhabitants. The regional capital is Florence ....

 and to counter the Prefetti di Vico

Prefetti di Vico

The Prefetti di Vico were an Italian noble family, of German origin, who established in Rome from the 10th century.They obtained the title of praefect urbis by the Holy Roman Emperor. The rest of the name derived from the Lake Vico, in northern Lazio, where most of their lands were located...

 in the Latium

Latium

Lazio is one of the 20 administrative regions of Italy, situated in the central peninsular section of the country. With about 5.7 million residents and a GDP of more than 170 billion euros, Lazio is the third most populated and the second richest region of Italy...

. However, as Fortebraccio pursued mostly his personal interests, especially regarding the possession of Città di Castello, he was fired.

Having received a condotta by the Visconti

House of Visconti

Visconti is the family name of two important Italian noble dynasties of the Middle Ages. There are two distinct Visconti families: The first one in the Republic of Pisa in the mid twelfth century who achieved prominence first in Pisa, then in Sardinia where they became rulers of Gallura...

 of Milan

Duchy of Milan

The Duchy of Milan , was created on the 1st of may 1395, when Gian Galeazzo Visconti, Lord of Milan, purchased a diploma for 100,000 Florins from King Wenceslaus. It was this diploma that installed, Gian Galeazzo as Duke of Milan and Count of Pavia...

, in 1434 he moved against Rome

Rome

Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

. Giovanni Vitelleschi

Giovanni Vitelleschi

Giovanni Maria Vitelleschi was an Italian cardinal and condottiere.-Biography:Vitelleschi was born in Corneto , some kilometers north to Rome. He received a military education, which he refined as apostolic protonotary under Pope Martin V...

 was sent against him, but as he was called to quench a revolt in Romagna

Romagna

Romagna is an Italian historical region that approximately corresponds to the south-eastern portion of present-day Emilia-Romagna. Traditionally, it is limited by the Apennines to the south-west, the Adriatic to the east, and the rivers Reno and Sillaro to the north and west...

, Fortebraccio managed to capture Tivoli

Tivoli, Italy

Tivoli , the classical Tibur, is an ancient Italian town in Lazio, about 30 km east-north-east of Rome, at the falls of the Aniene river where it issues from the Sabine hills...

. Eugene IV fled from Rome, a Republic, under the Colonna

Colonna family

The Colonna family is an Italian noble family; it was powerful in medieval and Renaissance Rome, supplying one Pope and many other Church and political leaders...

 aegis, being established in the city. Considering too great for him the lordship of Rome, Fortebraccio moved away. Escaped from a plot against him, he conquered Assisi

Assisi

- Churches :* The Basilica of San Francesco d'Assisi is a World Heritage Site. The Franciscan monastery, il Sacro Convento, and the lower and upper church of St Francis were begun immediately after his canonization in 1228, and completed in 1253...

 and married Ludovica da Battifolle.

After failing to adhere to the general truce which had momentarily ended the wars in Italy, a league was formed against Fortebraccio, under the capitano generale Francesco Sforza. On 15 August 1435 Niccolò defeated and took as prisoner Leone Sforza

Leone Sforza

Leone Sforza was an Italian condottiero, a member of the House of Sforza.Born at Castelfiorentino, he was the son of Muzio Attendolo, and brother to Alessandro and Francesco Sforza, both successful military leaders and seigniors....

, but on the following 23 August Alessandro Sforza

Alessandro Sforza

Alessandro Sforza was an Italian condottiero and lord of Pesaro, the first of the Pesaro line of the Sforza family.-Biography:...

 routed him at the siege of Fiordimonte, near Camerino

Camerino

Camerino is a small town of 7.135 inhabitants in the Marches , in the province of Macerata, Italy. It is located in the Apennines bordering Umbria, between the valleys of the rivers Potenza and Chienti, about 40 miles from Ancona....

. Wounded, blocked under his horse's corpse, Fortebraccio was abandoned to his agony by Sforza, until he died-killed by Cristoforo da Tolentino

Cristoforo da Tolentino

Cristoforo da Tolentino was an Italian condottiero, the son of Niccolò da Tolentino.The elder of three brothers, he followed Niccolò's military career, and was lord of Tolentino in 1434–1439....

.