Francesco I da Carrara

Francesco I da Carrara, called il Vecchio (1325–1393), tried to build a state around Padua and lost it to Milan. He became lord in 1350 after his father Giacomo II was murdered, sharing power with his uncle Jacopino until he jailed him over a plot in 1355.

Imperial vicar from 1356, he gained Feltre and Valsugana from Louis I of Hungary in 1360. He lost the war with Venice in 1372–1373 and paid 280,000 ducats, backed Genoa in the War of Chioggia, and bought Treviso in 1384. In 1387 his army under John Hawkwood won Castagnaro against Verona.

But Gian Galeazzo Visconti kept Verona and Vicenza and in 1388 allied with Venice to break Padua. Francesco abdicated for his son Francesco Novello and died a prisoner at Monza in 1393. He gave Petrarch an estate at Arquà.