Pandolfo II Malatesta

Pandolfo II Malatesta (1325–January 1373), eldest son of Malatesta III Guastafamiglia, became podestà of Pesaro in 1347, held it for life and founded the Malatesta line there. He served Galeazzo II Visconti as cavalry captain.

Galeazzo trusted him, but his co-ruler Bernabò hated him enough to have him bound and ordered beheaded, until Galeazzo saved him and sent him home to Pesaro. In 1358 Florence made him captain of war, and he drove the mercenary companies from its lands without bloodshed.

In 1363–1364 he led Florence's troops against Pisa while angling for lordship of the city; Florence refused, he let the enemy ravage its countryside, and he was dismissed. He spent his last years governing Pesaro, a friend of Petrarch, who had sent him a manuscript of the Rerum vulgarium fragmenta.