415 



VISCONTI. 



VISCONTI. 



416 



Luchino however had vices which marred his good qualities : he was 

 suspicious, lustful, and revengeful. He banished his three nephew?, 

 sons of Stefano Visconti, and let them wander abroad in poverty. He 

 put to death Pusterla, a Milanese noble, and his wife Margherita, 

 because she would not listen to his addresses. Isabella Fieschi, 

 Luchiuo's wife, was in this respect a match fur her husband, being 

 notoiious for her loose conduct. Luchino threatened to punish her, 

 but he died suddenly, in January 1349, and it is hinted by contem- 

 porary chroniclers that ho died of poison. 



By the death of Luchino, the archbishop GIOVANNI VISCOKTI 

 remained solo lord of Milan. He was of a mild and quiet disposition : 

 ho made peace with his neighbours the Marquis of Monferrato, the 

 Count of Savoy, and the Genoese ; he recalled from exile his nephews 

 Matteo, Barnab6, and Galeazzo, sons of Stefano Visconti, and he 

 obtained the hand of Bianca of Savoy for Galeazzo, and that of 

 Ilegiua della Scala for Barnab5. He purchased of Giovanni Pepoli 

 the dominion of Bologna, by the payment of 200,000 golden florins, 

 in 1350. Pope Clement VI. claimed the possession of Bologna as an 

 old dependence of the Roman see, and, as Giovanni refused to give it 

 up, the pope excommunicated him, but soon after came to a com- 

 promise, by which Giovanni retained Bologna, with the title of 'Vicar 

 of the Holy See.' Giovanni Visconti had been elected archbishop of 

 Milan by the chapter, first in 1317, and again in 1339, after the death 

 of the friar Aicardo, and in 1342 Clement VI. confirmed him in 

 his see. 



In 1353, the Genoese, having been defeated at sea near the coast of 

 Sardinia by the Venetians, and their town- being blockaded by the 

 forces of the King of Aragon, who was allied with the Venetians, 

 offered to the Archbishop Visconti the lordship of their city, stipu- 

 lating for the maintenance of their municipal liberties. Visconti sent 

 a garrison to protect the town, and in the following year a new fleet 

 sailed from the harbour of Genoa bearing on its colours the arms of 

 the ViscontL This fleet, commanded by Pagano Doria, obtained a 

 complete victory over the Venetian fleet on the coast of the Morea. 

 In the same year (October 1354) the Archbishop Giovanni Visconti 

 died, leaving Milan in peace and in a prosperous condition. He was 

 the last good ruler of the Visconti line ; those who came after him 

 were all bad, and some of them abominable. It was during the 

 government of Giovanni Visconti that Petrarch repaired to Milan, 

 where he was induced to remain by the archbishop, who paid him 

 great respect. 



After the archbishop's death, his three nephews, MATTEO, GALEAZZO, 

 and BARNABO, conjointly succeeded him in the lordship of the town 

 of Milan and its territory, but they divided among them the other 

 towns which had become subject to the Visconti. Matteo had for his 

 share the towns south of the Po, namely, Bologna, Parma, P^acenza, 

 and Bobbio, besides Lodi; Barnab6 had the towns east of the Adda 

 Brescia, Bergamo, Crema, and Cremona ; and Galeazzo took for him- 

 self Pavia, Asti, Alessandria, Tortona, Vercelli, Novara, Vigevano, and 

 Como. 



In January 1355, Charles IV. of Germany went to Italy to be 

 crowned, and was received by the brothers Visconti with, great mag- 

 nificence, and he appointed them his imperial vicars in their respective 

 dominions. In September of the same year Matteo Visconti died 

 suddenly, and it was said of poison administered by his brothers, who 

 divided his share of the territory between them. The city of Bologna 

 however was lost to the Visconti through the treachery of the governor 

 Oleggio, who sold it to the pope's legate. Barnabo insisted upon 

 having Bologna again, and sent a body of troops for that object in 

 1360, but was defeated by the army of the pope, who at the same 

 time excommunicated Barnabo. Barnab6 laughed at the excommuni- 

 cation, and told the Archbishop of Milan that he was determined to 

 act as pope and emperor in his own dominions. Innocent VI. sent 

 legates to Barnab5 to treat with him, but Barnabo obliged the legates 

 to eat the Papal bulls and swallow them piece by piece. One of these 

 legates afterwards became pope under the name of Urban V., and he 

 preached a crusade against Barnab6 in 1363, and again by a new bull in 

 1368. On this last occasion, the emperor, the queen of Naples, the mar- 

 quises of Ferrara, Monferrato, and Mantua, and other Italian princes, 

 formed a league with the pope against Barnabo, who however con- 

 trived to avert the storm, and to conclude a peace in 1369. He did 

 not recover Bologna, for which the pope paid him a sum of money. 

 Gregory XL, who succeeded Urban V., again attacked Barnab5, and 

 prevailed upon the Emperor Charles IV. to deprive both him and his 

 brother Galeazzo of their dignity of imperial vicars, in 1372. A 

 desultory war was carried on in Lombardy and Romagna for some 

 years, during which the papal officers and troops committed so many 

 excesses, that the Florentines, Pisans, and others, joined Barnabd 

 in an alliance, which was styled " the league against the iniquitous 

 clericals." The Visconti made the clergy of their dominions pay the 

 expenses of the war. Two Franciscan monks, who dared to remon- 

 strate with Barnabo for his extortion, were burnt alive by his order. 

 The stories that are told of Barnab6's ferocity are almost incredible, 

 and yet many of them seem well attested. He was very fond of 

 hunting, kept large packs of hounds, and was very cruel to any one 

 who killed game. He kept a number of concubines, by whom he had 

 many children. The only good quality mentioned of Barnab6 is that 

 he put down the factions and forbade eveu the mention, of the names 



of Guelphs and Guibelines under pain of having the tongue cut off. 

 His brother Galeazzo, who had fixed his residence at Pavia, was no less 

 cruel, though less impetuous and more calculating. His horrid penal 

 edict against state prisoners is a fearful instance of the ingenuity of 

 man in tormenting his fellow-creatures. It was styled ' Galeazzo's 

 Lent,' because the tortures were so distributed as to last forty days 

 before the wretched victim received the death-blow. At the same 

 time Galeazzo encouraged learning, which Barnabu despised ; he 

 opened the University of Pavia about the year 1302, and collected a 

 considerable library. Galeazzo married his son Gian Galeazzo to 

 Isabella, daughter of King John of France, and he gave his daughter 

 Violante in marriage to Lionel, son of Edward III. of England. Ga- 

 leazzo II. died at Pavia in 1378, and was succeeded by his son Gian 

 Galeazzo, styled count of Vertu, from the name of a fief in Franco 

 which his wife Isabella brought him as her dowry. 



Barnab6 continued to rule Milan and the rest of his territories till 

 May 1385, when his nephew Gian Galeazzo, under pretence of having 

 an interview with him, went to Milan with a large escort, surpri.-ed 

 Barnab5, and shut him up in the castle of Trezzo, where he died seven 

 months after. Gian Galeazzo allowed the populace of Milan to plunder 

 the houses of Barnabe- and of his sons, who were all excluded from 

 the succession by a decree of the general council, and Giau Gulea/zo 

 was proclaimed sole lord of Milan and its dependencies, which con- 

 sisted of twenty-one towns. But he aspired higher ; he aimed at 

 making himself king of Italy, or at least of North Italy. With tha 

 assistance of Francesco da Carrara, lord of Padua, he drove away the 

 Della Scala from Verona and Vicenza, and afterwards turned against 

 his ally and took Padua, and he confined Carrara in the dungeons of 

 Monza, where he died. He seized Bologna by force, as well as part of 

 Romagna, crossed the Apennines and took Perugia and Spoleto. He 

 bought the dominion of Pisa from Gherardo Appiani, who was lord of 

 it ; Siena gave itself up to him, and he repeatedly attacked Florence, 

 the only Italian state that successfully opposed his ambitious career. 

 Gian Galeazzo had in his pay the best mercenary troops in Italy, com- 

 manded by Jacopo del Verme, and other celebrated coudottieri. In May 

 1395, Giau Galeazzo obtained of the Emperor Wenceslas, for the sum 

 of 100,000 golden florins, a diploma, creating him Duke of Milan ; and 

 by a subsequent imperial diploma, dated October of the same year, 

 the boundaries of the duchy of Milan were defined, and made to 

 include 25 towns, from Verona, Vicenza, and Belluno, on the east, to 

 Alessandria and Tortona on the west. On the 5th of September 1395 

 Gian Galeazzo was crowned with the ducal crown in the square of 

 San Ambrogio, in presence of a vast multitude. He soon after began 

 to build the new cathedral of Milan. 



The German princes, indignant at the cession made by Wenceslas 

 of the fair regions of Lombardy, deposed that weak emperor, and 

 elected Robert count palatine as king of Germany in A.D. 1400. 

 Robert went to Italy with some troops, and summoned Gian Galeazzo 

 to restore to the empire the towns which he occupied. Gian Galeazzo 

 sent Alberico da Barbiano, who defeated Robert near Brescia, and 

 obliged him to recross the Alps into Germany. In 1402 Alberico was 

 besieging Florence, .and Gian Galeazzo was only waiting for the sur- 

 render of that city to declare himself king of Italy, when he was 

 attacked by the plague which then prevailed in Lombardy, and died 

 in the castle of Marignano in September of the same year. Thus was 

 lost another chance for the union of Italy under a native prince. 



Gian Galeazzo left two sons, both minors. The eldest, Giovanni 

 Maria Visconti, fourteen years old, was proclaimed duke. The duchy 

 however was reduced to very narrow limits by the revolt of most of 

 the towns, and the conquests of the Venetians on one side, aud of the 

 pope and the Marquis of Monferrato on the other. The young duke, 

 when he came of age, proved pusillanimous, suspicious, and cruel. 

 His cruelty partook of insanity. He delighted in seeing men, and even 

 children, torn to pieces by large mastiffs which he kept for the pur- 

 pose. A wretch called Squarcia Giramo, who had charge of his 

 kennel, was his confidential friend and minister. Giovanni Maria is 

 said to have caused his own mother to be poisoned. At last a con- 

 spiracy was formed against him, and he was stabbed to death on the 

 16th of May 1412, at Milan, while on his way to church. Squarcia 

 Giramo was torn to pieces by the people. The conspirators, among 

 whom were several of the collateral branches of the Viscouti, kept 

 possession of Milan for a few weeks. 



Filippo Maria Visconti, at that time twenty years of age, and brother 

 to the late duke, was then staying at Pavia. He was heir to the 

 ducal crown, as Giovanni Maria had left no issue. He was of a 

 timorous, suspicious, and vindictive disposition, but not madly 

 ferocious like his brother. Facino Cane, cue of the generals of hie 

 father, and who, in the scramble that took place after the death of 

 Gian Galeazzo, had made himself master of Piaceuza, Alessandria, 

 Tortona, Novara, and other places, died about the same time as the 

 Duke Giovanni Maria. Beatrice Tenda, Facino's widow, had the com- 

 mand of his territories and of his veteran band of soldiers. It was 

 suggested to Filippo Maria to marry the widow as the means of 

 securing the ducal crown. He did so, and Filippo Maria at the head 

 of Fuciuo's soldiers entered Milan in triumph on the 16th of June, a 

 month after the death of Giovanni Maria. Among the officers of 

 Facino Cane was a native of Carinagnola in Piedmont, named Fran- 

 cesco Bussone, to whom the new Duke Filippo Maria entrusted the 



