Bianca Riario

"Is this all the men you have to hold me? Stolti. (Fools.) It won't be enough. My mamma is fierce. We Sforza women are no wilting flowers. We may look pretty to the eye, but the eyes deceive. Just ask babbo. (father.) I hope you don't imagine I'm scared of you. You'd be sorely mistaken. My mamma would never let you hurt me."

―Bianca naïvely making fun of her captors, 1488.

Bianca Riario (March 1478 - 1522) was the daughter of Girolamo Riario and Caterina Sforza, and sister to Ottaviano Riario.

Biography

Early life

In 1484, at the age of 6, she witnessed the sacking of her family's palazzo in Rome, and was carried by her warrior mother into a siege of the Castel Sant'Angelo, being one of the first of many traumas she would face in her youth. Afterwards, her family moved to Forlì, where more horrific events would shape her.

Shortly after Bianca's 10th birthday, her father, Girolamo, was stabbed to death in front of her and his naked body thrown into the middle of the town square. Once more, her family's palazzo was sacked, by the Orsi brothers, who had been hired by her mother to kill Girolamo.

Some time later, during the Battle of Forlì, Bianca was kidnapped by Checco and Ludovico Orsi, until she was liberated from them by the Assassin Ezio Auditore da Firenze, to which she returned to her mother.

Following this, when she was 16, while she was out on a hunting expedition with her mother's new husband, Giacomo Feo, Bianca witnessed his brutal ambush and assassination.

Later life

In 1500, Bianca's mother was taken prisoner by Cesare Borgia, and two years later, Cesare killed her husband, Astorre Manfredi III. She married again, this time to Count Troilo I de' Rossi, who died in 1521. After his death, she grew very depressed and eventually died in 1522.

Trivia

• Bianca, along with her siblings and Petruccio Auditore da Firenze, were the only non-adult characters to appear in Assassin's Creed II.
• Her face model was recycled in Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, and was used for several female civilians, including pre-recruitment Assassin apprentices.

Reference

• Assassin's Creed II