413 



VISCONTI. 



VISCONTI. 



414 



Marquis of Monferrato, in an irruption -which they made into the 

 Milanese territory in 1290. After the expiration of the five years of 

 his oltice, ho was confirmed in it by the voice of the citizens, and in 

 1294 was appointed, by Adolf of Nassau, imperial vicar in Lombardy, 

 which dignity was confirmed to him by Albert of Austria, who assumed 

 the crown of Germany after the death of Adolf in 1298. In the year 

 1300 Matteo married his eldest sou Galeazzo to Beatrice d'Este, sister 

 of Azzo, lord of Modena and marquis of Ferrara. Matteo entrusted 

 Galeazzo with the command of the militia of Milan, against the Delia 

 Torre and their partisan?, who still kept the field, and were supported 

 by the people of Pavia, Cremona, Lodi, and other towns, which were 

 jealous of Milan. Galeazzo was very different from his father ; he was 

 young, inexperienced and rash ; he was repeatedly defeated, and at 

 last the Torriani re-entered Milan, .in 1302, and Matteo Visconti 

 withdrew to Nogarola near Verona, where he had a small property. 

 His son Galeazzo took refuge at Ferrara. 



Guido della Torre was put in the place of Matteo Visconti, as 

 ' perpetual captain of the people,' and he continued in his office till 

 1311, when Henry of Luxemburg having gone to Italy to be crowned 

 emperor, Guide opposed him, and was in consequence driven away 

 from Milan by the Imperial troops, assisted by the Visconti and their 

 friends. From that time the Torriani remained exiles from their 

 country. Matteo Visconti resumed his authority over Milan, being 

 appointed imperial vicar by Henry, to whom he paid 40,000 golden 

 florins. His son Galeazzo was likewise appointed imperial vicar of 

 Piacenza. Some time after, Matteo, by a stratagem, obtained pos- 

 session of Pavia, where he placed Luchino, another of his sons, as 

 governor. Alessandria, Tortona, Cremona, Bergamo, Lodi, and other 

 towns acknowledged in succession the rule of Visconti. 



Cassone della Torre, who had been elected archbishop of Milan in 

 1308, having become an exile with the rest of his family, obtained of 

 the pope his removal to the see of Aquileia. The see of Milan having 

 thus become vacant, Matteo Visconti caused one of his sons, Giovanni, 

 to be elected by the chapter, according to the old canonical form. The 

 pope, John XXII., refused to acknowledge the new archbishop, and he 

 appointed Aicardo, a Franciscan friar. Matteo forbade Aicardo from 

 going to Milan. The pope then ordered proceedings to be instituted 

 against Matteo Visconti, on the charges of heresy, sacrilege, and other 

 crimes, and summoned him to Avignon to defend himself. Robert of 

 Anjou, king of Naples, was appointed by the pope imperial vicar in 

 Lombardy ; for the pope assumed the right of appointing vicars during 

 the vacancy of the imperial crown, which was then contested between 

 Louis of Bavaria and Frederic of Austria. An army of Frenchmen, 

 or Provencals, under the Count of Maine, crossed the Alps and 

 marched against Milan. .Matteo senb his son Galeazzo with a strong 

 force to meet the enemy on the river Sesia, and he found means, by 

 negociations and bribes, to induce the Count of Maine to retrace his 

 steps into France without coming to blows. The pope however 

 excommunicated Matteo and his sons in 1321, because he would 

 not resign his authority and acknowledge King Robert as imperial 

 vicar in Lombardy ; and the inquisitors appointed by the pope sum- 

 moned him to appear before them at a church near Alessandria. 

 Matteo sent in his place one of bis sons, Marco, escorted by a body of 

 troops with flying colours, at the sight of which the inquisitors with- 

 drew to the town of Valenza in Monferrato, whence they issued their 

 sentence of condemnation against Matteo Visconti on twenty-five 

 charges, several of which consisted in his having laid taxes upon the 

 clergy and exercised temporal jurisdiction over them; in having inter- 

 ceded for the abbess Mainfreda, who had been burnt for heresy at 

 Milan, in the year 1300; in entertaining himself heretical opinions, 

 and being leagued with daemons. He was in consequence condemned 

 as a confirmed heretic, degraded from all honours and offices, and 

 stigmatised as perpetually infamous ; all his property was declared to 

 be confiscated, and his children and grandchildren were excluded 

 from every honour, dignity, and office. This extraordinary sentence 

 was given on the 14th of March 1322, in the church of Santa Maria 

 of Valenza, and signed by Aicardo, archbishop of Milan, and four 

 Dominican inquisitors, in presence of the cardinal legate, Bertrand du 

 Poiet, who afterwards proclaimed from the neighbouring town of Asti 

 a plenary indulgence to all those who took up arms against Matteo 

 Visconti and his adherents. Raynaldus, in his continuation of the 

 Annals of Baronius, acknowledges that these violent proceedings 

 against Visconti were instigated by party spirit ; and Pope Benedict 

 XII., in his bull of the 7th of May, 1341, denounced them as unjust 

 and null. 



At the time however Matteo's situation was very critical. His 

 enemies took the part of the legate, and the people in general were 

 horror-struck at the solemn denunciations against him. Matteo pro- 

 tested that he was no heretic, and that he was falsely accused ; and 

 having one day convoked the body of the clergy in the cathedral of 

 Milan, he repeated loudly before them the creed, professing that he 

 believed and had ever believed in the tenets therein expressed. 

 But the feeling of his danger and humiliation preyed upon the old 

 man's mind (he was then seventy -two years old), and he died after a 

 short illness, in June of the same year, three months after the sentence 

 was pronounced against him. All the chroniclers speak of him as a 

 wise and just man, the founder of the fortunes of his family, and some 

 have styled him 'the Great.' His son Galeazzo I. was proclaimed lord 



of Milan, tlpon this the pope issued an interdict against the city of 

 Milan, and ordered all the clergy to leave the place ; and he proclaimed 

 a general crusade against the Visconti family. Numbers answered the 

 call ; and the command of the crusaders wan given to Raymond of 

 Cardona, nephew of the cardinal-legate. In June 1323, the 'holy 

 army,' as it was styled, approached Milan, and took possession of the 

 suburbs, killing the men, violating the women, and burning the houses. 

 But the Visconti had a strong party within the city, and they defended 

 themselves until they received assistance from without. Marco Vis- 

 conti, .another son of Matteo, and a brave and enterprising captain, 

 still kept the field, hovering on the flanks and rear of the crusaders. 

 Louis of Bavaria, meantime having conquered and taken prisoner bis 

 rival Frederic of Austria, and being acknowledged king in Germany, 

 sent a body of troops into Italy to assist the Visconti, who had 

 incurred the wrath of the pope mainly because they had striven to 

 maintain their delegated authority of imperial vicars against the 

 assumptions of the pope, who would appoint his own vicars to the 

 prejudice of the imperial authority. This was at least the ostensible 

 ground which the Visconti took, and a plausible one it was, and very 

 convenient to the interest of the empire in Italy. The aid of Louis 

 of Bavaria and the exertions of Marco Visconti saved Milan. The 

 crusaders withdrew to Monza. The pope, in July of that year, excom- 

 municated Louis of Bavaria for having assumed the title of King of 

 the Romans without the papal approbation, and also for having 

 assisted the heretical Visconti. Louis then held a diet of the empire 

 at Nurnberg, in which he protested against the interference of the 

 popes in the temporal concerns of the empire, and appealed to a 

 general council of the Church. In the year 1324 a battle took place at 

 the bridge of Avrio on the Adda, between the papal or crusade troops 

 and those of the Visconti, in which the former were defeated. Cardona 

 was taken prisoner, and those who escaped shut themselves up in the 

 town of Monza, which, after a siege of some months, surrendered to 

 Galeazzo Visconti. 



In 1327 Louis of Bavaria went to Italy, and was crowned at Milan 

 with the iron crown of Lombardy, in May of that year. He also 

 recognised Galeazzo Visconti as imperial vicar over Milan, Lodi, Pavia, 

 and Vercelli. But a few days after, a quarrel the grounds of which 

 are not ascertained broke out between Louis and Galeazzo, instigated, 

 it would seem, by Marco Visconti, who was envious of his brother. 

 About the same time, Stefano Visconti. another son of Matteo, died 

 suddenly. Galeazzo, his son Azzo, and his brothers Luchino and 

 Giovanni, were arrested by order of Louis, and shut up in the dun- 

 geons of Monza. After eight months' confinement they were libe- 

 rated, in March 1328, by the intercession of Castruccio Caetracani, 

 lord of Lucca, and a favourite of Louis of Bavaria. Galeazzo died 

 soon after in exile, whilst Milan was temporarily governed by a. 

 council of twenty-four citizens. Louis of Bavaria was crowned 

 emperor at Rome, in May 1328, by the antipope Nicholas V., whom 

 he had set up in opposition to John XXII. The people of Rome, 

 tired of the residence of the popes at Avignon, acknowledged Nicholas, 

 and the people of Milan did the same. Louis of Bavaria, being in 

 want of money, sold to Azzo Visconti, son of Galeazzo I., the appoint- 

 ment of imperial vicar of Milan, in January 1329, for 60,000 golden 

 florins ; and the antipope Nicholas confirmed Giovanni Visconti, Azzo's 

 uncle, as archbishop of Milan, made him a cardinal, and appointed 

 him apostolic legate in Lombardy. John XXII., perceiving that he 

 was in danger of losing all influence in Italy, came to terms with the 

 Visconti through the mediation of the Marquis of Este, and reco<*- 

 nised Azzo as lord of Milan, releasing him and the people of Milan 

 from excommunication. This was in September 1329. 



Azzo VISCONTI, being acknowledged lord by the council of the city 

 of Milan, as well as by the pope, renounced all connection with Louis 

 of Bavaria and the autipope Nicholas. He ruled Milan for eleven 

 years, during which he applied himself chiefly to improve the town, 

 rebuild its walls, and pave the streets ; he restored and embellished 

 the palace raised by his grandfather, Matteo, and employed for the 

 purpose the painter Giotto of Florence and the sculptor Giovanni 

 Balducci of Pisa. Azzo Visconti was a good prince, and when he 

 died, in August 1339, more than 3000 citizens voluntarily put on 

 mourning for him. He was the first lord of Milan who struck coin in 

 his own name, omitting that of the reigning emperor. He left no 

 issue, and the council-general, after his death, proclaimed joint lords 

 of Milan his, two remaining uncle?, Luchino and Giovanni Viscouti. 

 Giovanni however, being a clergyman and of a quiet character, left to 

 his brother Luchino all the cares of government. 



LUCHINO VISCONTI was an able, determined, and not very scrupulous 

 man. To the several towns besides Milan which acknowledged the 

 rule of his nephew Azzo, he added the towns of Asti, Bobbio, Parma, 

 Crema, Tortona, Alessandria, and Novara, thus making himself lord 

 of the greater part of Lombardy and Monferrato. He obliged also 

 the Pisans to become tributaries to him. He established a regular 

 police, and severely punished all offenders against the law, without 

 distinction of party. He appointed a judge of appeals at Milan, who 

 was styled ' Exgravator,' who decided summarily. It was determined 

 that this magistrate should be a foreigner, without relations or con- 

 nections in Milan. In Luciano's time the manufacture of silks was 

 established at Milan, and agriculture, and especially the cultivation of 

 the vine, was improved, as well as the breed of horses and cattle. 



