Visconti

The Visconti were a Lombard noble family of Milan, first documented in 1075 when Ariprando Visconti and his son Ottone signed legal acts in the city; their hereditary title of viscount gave the house its name. The archbishop Ottone Visconti, appointed in 1262, wrested Milan from the rival Della Torre family in 1277 and founded the family's lordship. Teobaldo Visconti had already been elected pope as Gregory X in 1271. Under Azzone, lord from 1329 to 1339, the Visconti took Cremona and Brescia, won the Battle of Parabiago in 1339, and called Giotto to decorate their palace in Milan. Archbishop Giovanni added Bologna in 1350 and Genoa in 1353, while Bernabo and Galeazzo II married their many children into the royal houses of Europe and built the great castle of Pavia.

In 1385 Gian Galeazzo deposed his uncle Bernabo and united all Visconti lands; he bought the title of Duke of Milan from King Wenceslaus IV in 1395, conquered Verona, Padua, Pisa and Siena, began the Milan Cathedral in 1386 and founded the Certosa of Pavia, before dying in 1402. His daughter Valentina married Louis of Orleans in 1389, carrying a claim to Milan to the French royal house. With the death of Filippo Maria in 1447 the male line ended; the short-lived Ambrosian Republic followed, and Filippo Maria's son-in-law Francesco Sforza founded a new ducal dynasty.