councils of war and in meetings with the French, and, above all, her decisive stance in the excited days when Orleans threatened Milan, in stark contrast this time to her husband's intentions to escape, as well as the actual drift of the Sforza state following his death, they show that his decision-making and political power was much more substantial than is currently thought. Political Thought She initially pursued the policy of her father Ercole, who for years had been plotting to replace Ludovico to Gian Galeazzo in the actual possession of the duchy of Milan and who with this precise purpose had given her to him in marriage. It is to be believed that without the interference of his wife Ludovico would never have taken the step of usurping the duchy to his nephew in all respects and that he would have been content to continue to govern him as regent as he had been doing for more than ten years. It is no coincidence that it was Beatrice herself who said that, with the birth of the little Ercole Massimiliano, she had given birth to a son to her husband and also to her father. When then, with the change of alliances, Hercules, although officially neutral, continued to lean towards the French, while Louis sided with the Holy League, Beatrice felt betrayed by her father who, in a moment of maximum difficulty, that is, in the days immediately preceding the occupation of Novara by Orléans, did not want to send them the requested aid. She then abandoned her daughter's robes to assume that of head of state, with a letter that for its exceptionally harsh and authoritative tone arouses amazement: she wrote to her father that she would have expected, in such a situation, that he himself would come to their defense, and that he does not understand how he did not want to send even two hundred men of arms, worrying what would have been said in Italy when it had been known about this refusal; therefore she invites him to remedy this lack so as not to leave in her and in her husband the ill will towards her, all the more so since, if he were to be attacked, two hundred men of arms would not be enough for him to defend Ferrara without external help. Perhaps also as a result of this, after Novara his