Ferrantino Malatesta

Ferrantino Malatesta (1258–1353) was a condottiero of the Rimini Malatesta, son of Malatestino I, in the years when the family was carving a lordship out of the papal March. In 1304 he joined Pandolfo I in seizing Pesaro by force and also took Fano and other cities, though in 1306 they lost every city to a papal legate.

On Pandolfo's death in 1326 he became defender of Rimini. Banned by the papal legate in 1330, he won the city back in 1333.

Two years later Malatesta III lured him to Pesaro and imprisoned him at Gradara, while Malatesta IV had himself proclaimed lord of Rimini; Ferrantino was moved to Fossombrone, where his son and grandson were killed. Freed in 1336, he lived in Urbino, returned to Rimini in 1351 and died there in 1353.