Ricciarda Cybo-Malaspina

Ricciarda Malaspina (1497 – 15 June 1553) was an Italian noblewoman, who was marquise of Massa and lady of Carrara from 1519 to 1546, and again from May 1547 until her death in 1553.^[1] She was ultimately succeeded by her younger son Alberico I.

Born in Massa, she was the daughter of Antonio Alberico II Malaspina [it] and Lucrezia d'Este. His father in 1481 had become marquis of Massa and lord of Carrara, in condominium with his brother Francesco, whom however he soon ousted from power. Having no sons, Antonio Alberico, in violation of Salic law, named his first daughter, Eleonora, as heiress to his titles. Elenora was married to Scipione Fieschi, count of Lavagna, but she died in 1515. The following year Fieschi got married again, this time to his sister-in-law, Ricciarda. The marriage lasted for four years, until he too died, without male issue.

In his renewed will Antonio Alberico established as his universal heir the future first-born son of Ricciarda, or, in the event of his predecease, Ricciarda's other sons in order of birth, or, in their absence, those of his fourth-born daughter Taddea, or in further absence and always respecting the order of birth, the male children of the daughters of the two princesses. Finally, should these leave no male issue either, the succession would pass to Antonio Alberico's grandnephews, Francesco and Ottaviano Malaspina, descendants of his brother Francesco. The Salic law in force in the territories of the Empire seemed thus in some way safeguarded, and Ricciarda was in the meantime named "lady and mistress and usufructuary and heiress of his [Antonio Alberico's] inheritance and assets, as long as she is of age to conceive and bear children".^[2]

After Antonio Alberico also died in 1519 (few months before her husband), notwithstanding her being a woman and in spite of the Salic law, Ricciarda succeeded in maintaining control over his states. The following year she married Lorenzo Cybo, a Genoese nobleman who was a grandson of Pope Innocent VIII and Lorenzo de' Medici, and a nephew of the incumbent Pope Leo X, thus founding the Cybo-Malaspina family, who would hold Massa and Carrara until 1829.

In a period in which Italy was overrun by the wars between France, Spain, the Holy Roman Empire, and the Italian states, she proved adroit in wangling her way through the various major powers and, despite being a relative of Pope Clement VII by marriage and having lived in Rome for a long time, she managed to win the Emperor Charles V's favour. Thus, in 1529, also to counter her husband's ambitions to get his hands on her father's fiefdoms, she succeeded in getting invested with them suo jure with a truly unusual imperial decree: in derogation of the Salic law, it gave her the right to transmit her titles not only to her male descendants, but, in their absence, also to females, always respecting the newly established principle of primogeniture.

The following year her husband went on the counterattack and in turn managed to get himself appointed "co-owner" of the two fiefdoms by Charles V, but the two spouses could no longer find terms of mutual understanding and peaceful coexistence. After a failed attempt by Lorenzo to oust her from the throne by force in 1538, Ricciarda turned again to the emperor: in 1541 she succeded in having the 1530 imperial decree revoked and thus got rid of her husband's claims for good.

When the couple's eldest son Giulio came of age, it was he that extorted the lordship from Ricciarda in 1546, by force of arms, threats and entreaties and, finally, with a purchase contract whose terms were far beyond his means, but she took back the reins the following year after his involvement in a pro-France plot, which led to his decapitation in Milan in 1548. She made attempts to save her son from death, although it is difficult to establish whether she really did her utmost. In a letter written from Rome on 2 February 1548, in particular, she directly entreated pardon of Charles V, but in vain.^[3]

She continued to reign over Massa until her death in 1553. She was succeeded by her younger son Alberico, officially held to be legitimate but most probably the son of Cardinal Innocenzo Cybo, Ricciarda's brother-in-law and her long-time lover en titre and mentor. In her will she imposed on her successors the obligatory clause that they should bear her family surname Malaspina alongside their paternal one Cybo.

Ricciarda was a strong and stubborn woman ahead of her time, pleasure-loving and of easy virtue but also proud of her own prerogatives and determined to defend them at all costs even against her male family members who opposed her. It was thanks to the results achieved during her tragic life that the states of Massa and Carrara were eventually governed, in their last hundred years of autonomous existence, by three illustrious duchesses : Ricciarda Gonzaga [it],^[4] as regent (1731 to 1744), and, as legitimate rulers, her daughter Maria Teresa Cybo-Malaspina (1731 to 1790) and the latter's daughter Maria Beatrice Ricciarda d'Este (1790 to 1829), who were entitled to reign despite their being women only because they descended from marquise Ricciarda Malaspina.^[5]

From her first marriage Ricciarda had only one daughter, Isabella Fieschi.

From her second marriage Ricciarda had three children who survived to adulthood:

1. Eleonora Cybo (1523–1594);
2. Giulio I Cybo-Malaspina, Marquis of Massa (1525-1547) dethroned his mother in 1546–1547;
3. Alberico I Cybo-Malaspina, Prince of Massa (1534-1623) succeeded his mother following her death.

Ricciarda also had several illegitimate children:

• Alessandro, Clemente, Elena e Ricciarda, later legitimized by her brother-in-law Cardinal Innocenzo Cybo, their father;
• Scipione, by her lover, the imperial ambassador to Rome, Giovan Ferdinando Manrique d'Aguilar;
• Giulia Cybo, of uncertain paternity (possibly another member of the Cybo family).

• Calonaci, Stefano (2006). "Malaspina, Ricciarda". In Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, volume 67, Enciclopedia Italiana