Shortly afterwards her terrible father met a tyrant's death in Milan.

Then her husband fell beneath the daggers of the conspirators, who flung his naked body from a window of the stronghold of Forli.

Catarina, however, with determined courage, succeeded in keeping the castle for her children, and she avenged her husband's death with ferocious cruelty.

Subsequently she was known--to quote Marino Sanuto's words--as "a courageous woman and cruel virago."[79] Six years later she saw her brother Giangaleazzo die of poison administered by Ludovico il Moro, while before her very eyes her second, but not openly recognized, husband, Giacomo Feo of Savona, was slain in Forli by conspirators.

She immediately mounted her charger, and at the head of her guard pursued the murderers to their quarter, where she had every living being--men, women, and children--hacked to pieces.
She buried a third lover, Giovanni Medici, in 1497.
With cunning and force this amazon ruled her little domain until she herself finally fell into Caesar's hands.