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| 4. Milan |
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| THE VISCONTI AND SFORZA FAMILIES (1310-1535) |
| Early history. An ancient center of the agriculture of the Lombard plain, Milan was self-sufficient in food, the master of important passes (Brenner, Splügen, St. Gothard) in the Alps, and was for a long time surpassed in wealth only by Venice. | 1 |
| Establishment of Pavia as the Lombard capital (569). Emergence of Milan as the center of Italian opposition in the Lombard plain to alien and heretical domination. Rise of the archbishop as defender of native liberty and orthodoxy laid the basis for the evolution of archiepiscopal temporal power (military, administrative, judicial), exercised through his viscounts. The end of Lombard domination (774), followed by Carolingian destruction of the great Lombard fiefs, strengthened the episcopal power still further. | 2 |
| The spirit of municipal independence emerged from intense rivalries for the archiepiscopal see and the necessities of defense; Milan became an island of safety and justice in the Lombard plain, a populous, self-sufficient, city-state. Under Archbishop Heribert (1018–45) the carroccio (arc of municipal patriotism) was set up; expansion in the Lombard plain began (reduction of Lodi, Como, Pavia). A moat was dug after the destruction wrought by Emperor Frederick I (1162); the city was rebuilt by its allies, Bergamo, Brescia, Mantua, and Verona. (For the Lombard League and the wars with Frederick, see (See 1184).) Rapid growth, extension of the walls (after 1183). Chief industry: armor manufacturing and the wool trade; later, silk manufacture; irrigation made the plain productive. | 3 |
| Government: (1) parlamento (consiglio grande) (membership successively reduced to 2,000, 1,500, 800); (2) credenza, a committee of 12 for urgent and secret business; (3) consuls (the executive) elected for a year, responsible to the assembly. | 4 |
| Bitter warfare between populace and nobles led to the rise of two great families, the Della Torre (lords of the tower, or castle) and the Visconti (i.e., the viscounts). | 5 |
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| 1237–77 |
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| Rule of the (Guelf) Della Torre. Martino implemented the catàsto, a tax of democratic and uniform incidence. The title signore, lord of Milan, established (1259); defeat and capture of the (Ghibelline) Visconti and their adherents. Milan established her power over Bergamo, Lodi, Como, and Vercelli. | 6 |
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| 1277–1447 |
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| Rule of the VISCONTI. Established by Archbishop Otto Visconti. Establishment (1312) of the Visconti supremacy (Matteo designated imperial vicar). Ruthless Visconti rule and expansion over northern Italy (including Genoa). Stefano's sons Bernabò, Galeazzo, Matteo divided the domains but ruled jointly until Matteo was assassinated (1355) by his brothers. Intolerably harsh joint rule of Bernabò (1354–85) at Milan and Galeazzo (1354–78) at Pavia; ostentatious patronage of learning and art. | 7 |
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| 1378–1402 |
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| Gian Galeazzo succeeded his father Galeazzo and did away with Bernabò (1385), thereafter ruling alone (1385–1402). Gian Galeazzo married Isabelle, daughter of King John of France; one of his daughters, Valentina, married Louis of Orléans (the source of Louis XII's claims to Milan). Gian Galeazzo began the creation of a northern Italian kingdom: mastery of Verona, Vicenza, Padua (1386–88); Tuscan advance blocked by Florence (1390–92) and by the rebellion of Padua. Made hereditary duke (1395) by Emperor Wenceslas, the first such title among Italian regional rulers, he added Pisa and Siena (1399), Assisi and Perugia (1400) to his domains, and routed (1401) Elector Rupert III (in Florentine pay). The Certósa (Charterhouse) and Duomo (Cathedral) were begun. Gian Galeazzo's death (1402) saved Florence and opened a period of anarchy in Milan under his sons Gian Maria (1402–12) and Filippo Maria (1402–47), which undid much of their father's work. | 8 |
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| 1402–47 |
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| FILIPPO MARIA, after the assassination (1412) of Gian Maria, regained Gian Galeazzo's lands (even Genoa). Venice joined Florence against Filippo and took Bergamo, Brescia (1425). | 9 |
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| 1447–50 |
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| Filippo, last of the Visconti, was followed by the republic and the supremacy of Francesco Sforza, son-in-law of Filippo, who fought his way to mastery, defeating Venice and conquering the Lombard plain. | 10 |
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| 1450 |
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| Francesco Sforza was invested with the ducal title by popular acclaim. | 11 |
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| 1450–1500 |
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| Rule of the SFORZA. Francesco, eager for peace, came to terms with Cosimo de' Medici and Naples (the so-called triple alliance for the Italian balance of power). Louis XI was on intimate terms with Francesco and made him his political model. Francesco completed the Certósa and the Duomo with Florentine architects under Renaissance influence and began the Castello (Castle). Patron of the humanist Filelfo, Francesco gave his son Galeazzo and his daughter Ippolita a humanist education; Ippolita was famous for her Latin style. His court was full of humanists and learned Greeks. | 12 |
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| 1466–76 |
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| Galeazzo Maria Sforza was assassinated after a cruel but able rule. | 13 |
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| 1476–79 |
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| Galeazzo's son, GIAN GALEAZZO, husband of Isabella of Naples, under the regency of his mother, supported Florence against Naples after the Pazzi conspiracy (1478). Gian Galeazzo's uncle Ludovico usurped the duchy (1479). | 14 |
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| 1479–1500 |
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| LUDOVICO (called “il Moro,” perhaps because he was dark). The 19th-century Swiss historian Jakob Burckhardt called him “the perfect type of the despot.” Alarmed at his isolation after the death (1492) of Lorenzo de' Medici, Ludovico supported the appeals of Neapolitan refugees to Charles VIII of France, whose expedition (1494) began the destruction of Italian autonomy. In Charles's train came Louis of Orléans, who, as Louis XII (1498–1515), added claims to Milan to his other Italian claims, took Milan (1499), and captured Ludovico (1500), who ended his days (1508) as a prisoner of Louis. | 15 |
| Ludovico's generous patronage marked the golden age of the Renaissance in Milan. Ludovico, an artist, man of letters, economist, and experimenter, beautified the city, improved irrigation, bettered agriculture. He was the patron of Bramante and Leonardo. (See Other Italian States) | 16 |
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