He rarely paid his troops, but commissioned the captains in his service to levy contributions on the provinces they occupied.

The funds thus raised did not always reach the pockets of the soldiers, who subsisted as best they could by marauding.
Having made these terms, Francesco Maria Sforza was received into the Imperial favor.

He returned to Milan, in no sense less a prisoner than he had previously been, and with the heart-rending necessity of extorting money from his subjects at the point of Spanish swords.

In exchange for the ducal title, he thus had made himself a tax-collector for his natural enemies.

Secluded in the dreary chambers of his castle, assailed by the execrations of the Milanese, he may well have groaned, like Marlowe's Edward-- But what are Kings, when regiment is gone, But perfect shadows in a sunshine day?
My foemen rule; I bear the name of King; I wear the crown; but am controlled by them.
When he died he bequeathed his duchy to the crown of Spain.