Azzone Visconti

Azzone Visconti (7 December 1302 – 16 August 1339) was born at Ferrara, where his parents Galeazzo I and Beatrice d'Este had taken refuge after the Torriani drove his grandfather Matteo out of Milan; he was their only legitimate son.

After King Louis IV jailed the family in Monza castle in 1327, he sold Azzone the imperial vicariate of Milan in 1329 for sixty thousand florins. Azzone fortified the city against Louis' return; after his uncle Marco, who coveted the lordship, was found dead, the council in 1330 made him lord of Milan for life.

He rebuilt Visconti power, taking Bergamo in 1332 and Cremona in 1334, followed by Como, Lodi, Piacenza and Brescia. Crippled by gout, he gave Luchino the army that crushed Lodrisio at Parabiago early in 1339, and died that August.