Filippo Maria Visconti
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| Filippo Maria Visconti | |
|---|---|
| Duke of Milan | |
 Portrait of Filippo Maria Visconti preparatory drawing by Pisanello for the commemorative medal of the Duke | |
| Duke of Milan | |
| Reign | 16 May 1412 - 13 August 1447 |
| Predecessor | Gian Maria |
| Successor | Ambrosian Republic |
| Born | 3 September 1392 Milan |
| Died | 13 August 1447 (aged 54) Milan |
| Spouse | Beatrice Lascaris di Tenda Marie of Savoy |
| Issue | Bianca Maria, Duchess of Milan (illegitimate) |
| House | Visconti |
| Father | Gian Galeazzo Visconti |
| Mother | Caterina Visconti |
Filippo Maria Visconti (3 September 1392 – 13 August 1447)[1] was duke of Milan from 1412 to 1447. Known to be cruel and paranoid, but shrewd as a ruler, he went to war in the 1420s with Romagna, Florence and Venice in the Wars in Lombardy, but was eventually forced to accept peace under Pope Martin V. He would return to the offensive again where another peace agreement was required to end the fighting. He married twice, the second in 1428 to Marie, daughter of his ally Amadeus VIII. When he died, he was the last of the Visconti male line and was succeeded by Francesco Sforza, husband to his daughter.
Biography
[edit]
In 1402 when Filippo Maria was ten years of age his fatherdied of the plague, and his brother the fourteen-year old Gian.Maria became the new Duke of Milan. Their mother Caterina took the regency for her young son.
Gian Maria however was through the interference and insinuations of those closest to him he came to regard Caterina as threat to his power and on the 18 August 1404 he had their mother imprisoned at Monza, where she died on 17 October 1404, the death cause rumored to be due to poison.
Filippo Maria Visconti, who had become nominal ruler of Pavia in 1402, and succeeded his assassinated brother Gian Maria Visconti as Duke of Milan in 1412.
After the assasination of Gian Maria (16 May 1412) and of his brothers condottiero Faucino Cane, Filippo Maria betrothed himself to Canes widow Beatrice di Tenda Lascaris. In doing so he acquired control over Canes wealth and his armies[2] something he needed to gain control over Milan.
For altough Filippo Maria was as the brother of the deceased Gian Maria nominally the legal heir, as the son of Gian Galeazzo who had usurped the lordship of Milan by overthrowing and then murdering his uncle and father-in-law Bernabo Visconti (the maternal grandfather of Filippo Maria)
Therefore his sucession to the lordship of Milan was opposed by other claimants, like his uncle Estorre Visconti[3] and cousin Giancarlo Visconti, who were respectively an illegitimate son and legitimate grandson of Bernabo Visconti.
They had by support of the Milanese people themselves proclaimed joint rulers of Milan directly after the death of Gian Maria. They would keep hold of the title until the 16th of June of that same year when Filippo Maria managed to retake the city.[2]
That same year he confiscated several properties belonging to the Scotti family, among them, Agazzano Castle. From Filippo's marriage to Beatrice Lascaris di Tenda, Countess of Biandrate and the unhappy widow of Facino Cane—the condottiere who had fomented strife between the factions of Filippo's elder brother and his mother, Caterina Visconti, the regent—Filippo Maria received a dowry of nearly half a million florins;[4] but when Beatrice took too great an interest in affairs of state, he accused her of adultery and had her beheaded at the castle of Binasco in 1418.
Cruel, paranoid and extremely sensitive about his ugliness, he was nevertheless a great politician, and by employing such powerful condottieri as Carmagnola, Piccinino—who unsuccessfully led his troops at the Battle of Anghiari, 1440— and Francesco Sforza, he managed to recover the Lombard portion of his father's duchy.[4]
At the death of Giorgio Ordelaffi, lord of Forlì, he took advantage of his guardianship of the boy heir, Tebaldo Ordelaffi, to attempt conquests in Romagna (1423), provoking war with Florence, which could not permit his ambitions to go uncontested. Venice, urged on by Francesco Bussone da Carmagnola, decided to intervene on the side of Florence (1425) and the war spread to Lombardy. In March 1426 Carmagnola fomented riots in Brescia, which he had conquered for Visconti just five years previously. After a long campaign, Venice conquered Brescia, extending its mainland possessions to the western shores of Lake Garda. Filippo Maria unsuccessfully sought imperial aid but was constrained to accept the peace proposed by Pope Martin V, favouring Venice and Carmagnola. The terms were grudgingly accepted in Milan and by the emperor; but hostilities were resumed at the first pretext by Filippo Maria, leading to the defeat of Maclodio (12 October 1427), followed by a more lasting peace signed at Ferrara with the mediation of Niccolò III d'Este, Marquis of Ferrara.
The following year the duke married his second wife Marie of Savoy, Duchess of Milan, daughter of Duke Amadeus VIII of Savoy, a potent ally.[5] With Visconti's support, Amadeus reigned briefly as antipope Felix V from November 1439 to April 1449.
He invited the famous scholar Gasparino Barzizza to establish a school in Milan. Barzizza would also serve as his court orator.
He died in 1447, the last of the Visconti in direct male line, and he was succeeded in the duchy, after the short-lived Ambrosian republic, by Francesco Sforza (1401–1466).[4] In 1441, Francesco married Filippo Maria's only heir, his natural daughter Bianca Maria (1425–1468)[6] by his mistress Agnese del Maino (1401–1465).
Art
[edit]The oldest extant Tarot decks, then called carte da trionfi, were probably commissioned by Filippo Maria Visconti.[7]
Ancestors
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See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ Filippo Maria Visconti Treccani
- ^ a b Black, Jane (8 October 2009). Absolutism in Renaissance Milan: Plenitude of Power under the Visconti and the Sforza 1329-1535. OUP Oxford. ISBN 978-0-19-160988-6.
- ^ Capponi, Niccolo (3 November 2015). The Day the Renaissance Was Saved: The Battle of Anghiari and da Vinci's Lost Masterpiece. Melville House. ISBN 978-1-61219-461-5.
- ^ a b c Hayes 1911.
- ^ Wilkins & Wilkins 1996, p. 107.
- ^ Marina 2013, p. 379.
- ^ "Oldest Tarot Cards. Origin of Tarot. Research of the history of Tarot". trionfi.com. 17 April 2005. Retrieved 26 July 2016.
Sources
[edit]- Marina, Areli (2013). "The Langobard Revival of Matteo il Magno Visconti, Lord of Milan". I Tatti Studies in the Italian Renaissance. 16 (1/2 September). University of Chicago Press: 377–414. doi:10.1086/673405. S2CID 194035594.
- Wilkins, David G.; Wilkins, Rebecca L. (1996). The Search for a Patron in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. E. Mellen Press.
- This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Hayes, Carlton Joseph Huntley (1911). "Visconti s.v. Filippo Maria". In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 28 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 129.
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