Bernabò Visconti

Bernabò or Barnabò Visconti (1323 – 18 December1385) was an Italian soldier and statesman, who was Lordof Milan.

1 Life

He was born in Milan, the son of Stefano Visconti andValentina Doria. From 1346 to 1349 he lived in exile,until he was called back by his uncle Giovanni Visconti.On 27 September 1350 Bernabòmarried Beatrice Reginadella Scala, daughter of Mastino II, Lord of Verona andTaddea da Carrara, and forged both a political and cul-tural alliance between the two cities. His intrigues andambitions kept him at war almost continuously with PopeUrban V, the Florentines, Venice and Savoy. In 1354, atthe death of Giovanni, he inherited the power of Milan,together with his brothers Matteo and Galeazzo. Bernabòreceived the eastern lands (Bergamo, Brescia, Cremonaand Crema), that bordered the Veronese territories. Mi-lan itself was to be ruled in turn by the three brothers.The vicious Matteo was murdered in 1355 at the order ofhis brothers, who divided his inheritance between them.

Equestrian statue of Bernabò Visconti in the Castello Sforzesco,Milan.

In 1356, after having offended the emperor, he pushedback a first attack upon Milan by the imperial vicarMarkward von Randeck, imprisoning him. In 1360 hewas declared heretic by Innocent VI at Avignon and con-demned by Emperor Charles IV. The ensuing conflictended with a dismaying defeat at San Ruffillo againstthe imperial troops under Galeotto I Malatesta (29 July1361). In 1362, after the death of his sister’s husband,Ugolino Gonzaga, caused him to attack also Mantua.Warring on several different fronts, in December of thatyear he sued for peace with the new pope, Urban V,

through the mediation of King John II of France. How-ever, having Barnabò neglected to return the papal cityof Bologna and to present himself at Avignon, on 4March 1363 he was excommunicated once more,[1] to-gether with his children, one of whom, Ambrogio, wascaptured by the Papal commander Gil de Albornoz. Withthe peace signed on 13 March 1364, Visconti left the oc-cupied Papal lands, in exchange for the raising of the banupon a payment of 500,000 florins.In spring 1368 Visconti allied with Cansignorio dellaScala of Verona, and attacked Mantua, still ruled byUgolino Gonzaga. The situation was settled later in theyear through an agreement between him and emperor.Two years later he besieged Reggio, which he managed toacquire fromGonzaga in 1371. The following war againstthe Este ofModena and Ferrara raised again Papal enmityagainst the Milanese, now on the part of Gregory XI. In1370, he ordered the construction of the Trezzo Bridge,then the largest single-arch bridge in the world.In 1373, the pope sent two papal delegates to serve Bern-abò andGaleazzo their excommunication papers (consist-ing of a parchment bearing a leaden seal rolled in a silkencord). Bernabò, infuriated, placed the two papal dele-gates under arrest and refused their release until they hadeaten the parchment, seal, and silken cord which they hadserved him.[2] He managed to resist, despite also the out-break of a plague in Milan, whose consequences he sup-pressed with frantic energy.[3] In 1378 he allied with theRepublic of Venice in its War of Chioggia against Genoa.His troops were however defeated in September 1379 inthe Val Bisagno.Bernabò, whose despotism and taxes had enraged theMi-lanese — he is featured among the exempla of tyrants asvictims of Fortune in Chaucer's[4] Monk’s Tale as “godof delit and scourge of Lumbardye” — was deposed byhis nephew Gian Galeazzo Visconti in 1385. Imprisonedin the castle of Trezzo, he was poisoned in December ofthat year.The funerary monument of Bernabò Visconti, with anequestrian statue, together with that of his consort, hadbeen made beforehand, in 1363. The sculptures byBonino da Campione were intended for the church ofSan Giovanni in Conca. They now stand in the CastelloSforzesco in Milan.

1

2 2 CHILDREN

Bernabò and his wife, Beatrice

2 Children

Bernabò was an ally of Stephen II, Duke of Bavaria: threeof his daughters were married with Stephen’s descen-dants. He had 17 legitimate children with his wife:

1. Taddea Visconti, Duchess of Bavaria (1351–28September 1381), married on 13 October 1364Stephen III, Duke of Bavaria, bywhom she had threechildren including Isabeau of Bavaria, Queen con-sort of King Charles VI of France

2. Viridis Visconti (1352–1414), married Leopold III,Duke of Inner Austria, by whom she had six chil-dren.

3. Marco Visconti (November 1353–1382), marriedElisabeth of Bavaria

4. Rodolfo Visconti, Lord of Parma (1358–1388)

5. Ludovico Visconti (1358–7 March 1404), marriedViolante Visconti, widow of Lionel of Antwerp.They had a son, Giovanni, who left descendants.

6. Carlo Visconti (September 1359–August 1403),married Beatrice of Armagnac, daughter of JohnII, Count of Armagnac and Jeanne de Périgord, bywhom he had four children.

7. Valentina Visconti (1360–1393), married firstly in1378, King Peter II of Cyprus, by whom she hadone daughter who died in early infancy; she marriedsecondly, Galeazzo, Count of Virtù

8. Caterina Visconti, Duchess of Milan (1361–17 Oc-tober 1404), married on 2 October 1380 as his sec-ond wife, Gian Galeazzo Visconti 1st Duke of Mi-lan, by whom she had two sons, Gian Maria Vis-conti, 2nd Duke of Milan; and Filippo Maria Vis-conti, 3rd Duke of Milan, who fathered BiancaMaria Visconti by his mistress Agnese del Maino.

9. Agnese Visconti (1362–1391), married in 1380Francesco I Gonzaga, by whom she had one daugh-ter. Agnes was executed for alleged adultery.

10. Antonia Visconti (died 26 March 1405), marriedEberhard III, Count of Wurttemberg, by whom shehad three sons.

11. Mastino Visconti (died 1404), married Antoniadella Scala (died 1400), daughter of Cangrande II.

12. Maddalena Visconti (1366 – 17 July 1404), marriedFrederick, Duke of Bavaria, by whom she had fivechildren including Henry XVI of Bavaria

13. Aymonette Visconti, married Louis I de Berton desBalbes

14. Anglesia Visconti (died 12 October 1439), inJanuary 1400 married King Janus of Cyprus,but the marriage was childless and was dissolved1407/1409; he married in 1411 as his second wife,Charlotte de Bourbon-La Marche by whom he hadsix children.

15. Giammastino Visconti (1370 – 19 June 1405), mar-ried Cleofa della Scala (died 1403), by whom he hadthree children. She was the daughter of CangrandeII.

16. Lucia Visconti (1372 – 14 April 1424), marriedEdmund Holland, 4th Earl of Kent, the marriagewas childless.

17. Elisabetta Visconti (1374 – 2 February 1432), mar-ried on 26 January 1395 Ernest, Duke of Bavaria,by whom she had five children including Albert III,Duke of Bavaria.

His illegitimate offspring by Donnina del Porri, legiti-mated in a ceremony after the death of his wife in 1384,[5]were as follows:

• Palamede (d. 1402).

• Lancelloto.

• Sovrana, married Giovanni da Prato.

• Ginevra, married Leonardo Malaspina (d. 1441).

• Enrica, married Franchino Rusca.

3

In addition, Bernabò had other illegitimate offspring byother mistresses:[6]

—With Beltramola Grassi:

• Ambrogio (1343 – killed in battle Caprino Berga-masco, 17 August 1373), condottiero and Governorof Pavia.

• Isotta (d. 1388), married in 1378 to Count Lutz vonLandau, condottiero under the name of Lucio Land(d. 1398).

• Ettore (d. 1413), who briefly took the Lordship ofMilan (16May – 12 June 1412), marriedMargheritaInfrascati.

• Riccarda, married Bernard, Seigneur de La Salle (d.1391).

—With Montanina de Lazzari:

• Sagramoro (d. 1385), Lord of Brignano, marriedAchiletta Marliani.

• Donnina (1360–1406), married in 1377 to Sir JohnHawkwood.

—With Giovanolla Montebretto:

• Bernarda (d. 1376), married Giovanni Suardi.

• Valentia, married Antonio Gentile Visconti, Lord ofBelgioioso.

3 Bibliography• Pizzagalli, Daniela (1994). Bernabò Visconti. Mi-lan: Rusconi.

4 Footnotes[1] George L. Williams, Papal Genealogy: The Families and

Descendants of the Popes, (McFarland and Company Inc.,1998), 34.

[2] For this, see Irving Wallace, David Wallechinsky andAmyWallace, The Book of Lists 2(1980), Ealing, London,Elm Tree, 1980 and Corgi, 1981. ISBN 0-552-11681-5 ;p 147, although here it says the incident occurred in 1370.

[3] For his plague regulations for Milan, see Rosemary Hor-rox, The Black Death(1994) III.65, p 203.

[4] Chaucer had been sent to Lombardy in 1378 on behalf ofthe young King Richard II to seek the support of Bernabòand Sir John Hawkwood on behalf of the English war ef-fort against France. His epistola metrica III.29 was tacitlyaddressed to Bernabò (Ernest H. Wilkings, The 'EpistolaeMetricae' of Petrarch, (Edizioni di Storia e Letteratura), p.11.

[5] " Bernabò Visconti seems to have gone through some sortof marriage ceremony to legitimate his children by Don-nina del Porri” (H.S. Ettlinger, “Visibilis et Invisibilis:The Mistress in Italian Renaissance Court Society”, Re-naissance Quarterly, 1994.

[6] Marek, Miroslav. “Complete Genealogy of the House ofVisconti”. Genealogy.EU.

5 External links• Biography (Italian)

4 6 TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES

6 Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

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