TheDuchy of Milan (Italian:Ducato di Milano;Lombard:Ducaa de Milan) was a state inNorthern Italy, created in 1395 byGian Galeazzo Visconti, then the lord of Milan, and a member of the importantVisconti family, which had been ruling the city since 1277.[2][3] At that time, it included twenty-six towns and the wide rural area of the middlePadan Plain east of thehills of Montferrat. During much of its existence, it was wedged betweenSavoy to the west,Republic of Venice to the east, theSwiss Confederacy to the north, and separated from the Mediterranean by theRepublic of Genoa to the south. The duchy was at its largest at the beginning of the 15th century, at which time it included almost all of what is nowLombardy and parts of what are nowPiedmont, Veneto,Tuscany, andEmilia-Romagna.[3]
The Viscontis' dominions in the 14th century, before the foundation of the Duchy of Milan
The fate of the city of Milan was intertwined since the13th century with that of theVisconti family, who resumed the policy of territorial expansionism inherited from the city's municipality. One of the first Visconti exponents to lead the Lombard city wasOttone Visconti, electedarchbishop in 1262 and who defeated theDella Torre family in theBattle of Desio in 1277.[7]
In the first half of the following century, his nephews and great-grandsons who came to govern Milan:Matteo I,Galeazzo I,Azzone and the ArchbishopGiovanni, expanding the area of Visconti influence over the surrounding regions. An equal policy of enlargement and consolidation was pursued in the second half of the century by their successors:Matteo II,Bernabò andGian Galeazzo. After a period marked by tensions between the various members of the powerful family, Gian Galeazzo Visconti, nephew of Bernabò, came to power with a coup in 1385 and gradually unified the vast family domains scattered acrossNorthern Italy.[8][9] It is said that the territories subject to his dominion earned Gian Galeazzo in one year, in addition to the ordinary income of 1,200,000gold florins, another 800,000 in extraordinary subsidies.[10]
The duchy was officially established on 11 May 1395, whenGian Galeazzo Visconti, theDominus Generalis of Milan, obtained the title ofDuke of Milan by means of a diploma signed inPrague byWenceslaus of Bohemia. The nomination was ratified and celebrated in Milan on 5 September 1395. Gian Galeazzo Visconti also obtained thelicense to quarter the Visconti'sbiscione with the imperial eagle in the new ducal flag.[11][12]
The duchy, as defined in the diploma of 1395, included the territory surrounding Milan, between the Adda and Ticino rivers,[13] but the dominions of Gian Galeazzo Visconti extended beyond, including 26 towns and spanned fromPiedmont toVeneto and from present-dayCanton of Ticino toUmbria.[14][15] Milan thus became one of the five major states of the Italian peninsula in the 15th century. The House of Visconti had been expanding their dominions for nearly a century, under the reigns ofAzzone Visconti,Luchino Visconti,Giovanni Visconti,Bernabò Visconti and Gian Galeazzo Visconti: during the rule of Azzone Visconti, theOssola in Piedmont had been conquered in 1331, followed byBergamo andPavia (Lombardy) andNovara (Piedmont) in 1332,Pontremoli (Tuscany) in 1333,Vercelli (Piedmont) andCremona (Lombardy) in 1334, the Lombard cities ofComo,Crema,Lodi and theValtellina in 1335,Bormio (Lombardy) andPiacenza (Emilia) in 1336, andBrescia and theVal Camonica in 1337.[16]
The brothers Luchino and Giovanni Visconti addedBellinzona (present-day Switzerland in 1342,Parma (Emilia) in 1346 and several territories in southwestern Piedmont in 1347:Tortona,Alessandria,Asti, andMondovì. Bernabò conqueredReggio Emilia in 1371 andRiva del Garda in 1380, and Gian Galeazzo greatly expanded Milan's dominions, first eastwards, with the conquest of the Venetian cities ofVerona (1387),Vicenza (1387),Feltre (1388),Belluno (1388) andPadua (briefly, from 1388 to 1390), and later southwards, conqueringLucca,Pisa andSiena in Tuscany in 1399,Perugia in Umbria in 1400,Bologna in Emilia in 1402, andAssisi in Umbria also in 1402.[17]
When the last Visconti duke,Filippo Maria, died in 1447 without a male heir, the Milanese declared the so-calledGolden Ambrosian Republic, which soon faced revolts and attacks from its neighbors.[18] In 1450 mercenary captainFrancesco Sforza, having previously married Filippo Maria Visconti's illegitimate daughter Bianca Maria, conquered the city and restored the duchy, founding theHouse of Sforza.[19]
TheVenetian republic had not abandoned its desire to expand intoLombardy and therefore entered into an alliance withAlfonso V of Aragon,King of Naples, and with EmperorFrederick III, againstFrancesco I Sforza and his allies. Thefall of Constantinople, conquered by theOttoman Turks, however, endangered the structure of the Venetian possessions in theAegean Sea and after 4 years of war thePeace of Lodi was signed in 1454. With this document Francesco Sforza and Alfonso of Aragon were recognized respectively as Duke of Milan and King of Naples, the Republic of Venice extended its dominion up to theAdda and the Holy Italian League against the Turks was concluded.[20]
The political balance achieved with the Peace of Lodi lasted until the death ofLorenzo de' Medici, ruler ofthe Florentine Republic, and the incursion ofKing Charles VIII of France into Italy in 1494, except for some Swiss incursions which resulted in the Peace of Lucerne.[21]Galeazzo Maria, son of Francesco Sforza, due to his government considered by many to be tyrannical, was murdered in a conspiracy. His son,Gian Galeazzo, governed under the regency of his motherBona of Savoy, until his uncle,Ludovico il Moro usurped the throne of the duchy. Ludovico il Moro, son of Francesco Sforza, managed to obtain the guardianship of his nephew Gian Galeazzo and confine him to theVisconti Castle of Pavia, where in 1494 he died in such mysterious circumstances that many suspicions gathered around Ludovico himself.[22]
Relations between Ludovico andFerdinand II of Aragon therefore deteriorated: Gian Galeazzo had in fact married a niece of the King of Naples, who took the side of the legitimate heir. Ludovico il Moro responded by encouraging King Charles VIII of France to reclaim the Kingdom of Naples, as until 1442 the Neapolitan throne had belonged to Charles ancestors, theCapetian House of Anjou. In 1494, Charles VIII conquered Naples, upsetting the balance between the various Italian states and starting theItalian Wars.[23][24]
In 1495, Charles VIII was expelled from the Peninsula by a League composed of many Italian states, the Holy Roman Empire, the Spanish Empire and theKingdom of England. Only three years later, in 1498, the Duke of Orléans, who had become King of France under the name ofLouis XII, asserted his claims on the Duchy of Milan: one of his ancestors,Louis of Orleans, had in fact marriedValentina Visconti, daughter of Duke Gian Galeazzo, in 1389, whose marriage contract established that, in the event of the extinction of the Visconti dynasty, the title of Duke of Milan would go to Valentina's descendants. Louis XII, claiming to be the legitimate heir of the Viscontis, invaded the Milanese state in 1499, driving out Ludovico il Moro. The former Sforza ruler tried in vain to counter the transalpine troops, even asking the Emperor for help, but only managed to briefly recapture the capital and a few other lands. Defeated and taken prisoner inNovara in 1500, he was deported toFrance, to the Castle ofLoches, where he died on 27 May 1508.[25][26]
Louis XII remained Duke of Milan until 1512, when theSwiss army expelled theFrench from Lombardy and placedMaximilian Sforza, son of Ludovico il Moro, on the Milanese throne. Between 1512 and 1515, theSwiss cantonsde facto controlled the duchy.[27]
Shortly thereafter theWar of the League of Cognac broke out. Fighting erupted in Lombardy between League forces and Imperial forces under Antonio de Leyva, Alfonso del Guasto andCharles III, Duke of Bourbon. At the outset, the Imperial forces besieged Sforza in the castle of Milan. Although League forces attempted to relieve Milan, the Duke of Bourbon arrived with reinforcements on July 5. The League relief army attempted to break the siege lines but failed and on 24 July 1526 the citadel fell to the Imperial forces.[30][31]
An attempt was made to siege Milan by League forces two months later by Francesco Maria, Duke of Urbino. However by that time, additional reinforcements from Spain and Germany had joined Bourbon’s army and Urbino was forced to lift the siege. Milan continued to be held throughout the war by Imperial forces and was returned to Sforza and the Milanese only after both side sought peace and agreed to negotiations which resulted in theTreaty of Cambrai whereby France officially abandoned their claims to their Italian territories, including Milan and Naples.[32]
As part of the treaty, Charles also agreed to allow Sforza to be reinstated as the Duke of Milan until his death in exchange for concessions from Venice. Charles was also influenced by the fact that he did not want to clash with the Venetians, and he knew he didn't have the means to succeed, as the Venetians were concerned that Milan not fall into the hands of foreigners powers, given that they did not consider themselves "capable of occupying it nor proportionate to be able to hold it".[33][34][35]
Francesco II Sforza died without heirs in 1535, opening a new question for the succession to the throne. In this period, to be precise in 1532, Francesco II Sforza requested and obtained from Pope Clement VII the elevation ofVigevano, a city to which his family had always been deeply linked, to the capital ofVigevanasco, after it had obtained in 1530 the title of city and bishopric according to the same methods.[36][37]
King Francis of France and Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor both claimed the duchy by making war. The latter, claiming it as an imperial fief upon the extinction of the Sforza, obtained control of the duchy and installed his sonPhilip II there with an imperial diploma signed in Brussels on 11 October 1540 and made public in 1554. Philip's possession of the duchy was finally recognized by KingHenry II of France in 1559, with theTreaty of Cateau-Cambrésis. The duchy, having lost all forms of independence, was then reduced to a regional state subjected to foreign domination.[38][39]
Under the Spanish viceroys from 1535, Milan became one of the contributors to the Spanish king's army. At the time Lombardy had the most developed manufacturing and commercial economy anywhere in the world, making it a valuable tool for the Spanish military: an armory of paramount strategic importance.[43] In addition to resources, Milan also provided soldiers. During the Franco-Spanish War (1635–1659), Milan sent and paid for on average 4,000 soldiers per year (and over 100,000 in total) to the Spanish crown, with many of these men serving in the Low Countries against the Dutch States Army.[44]
With theTreaty of Baden, which ended theWar of the Spanish Succession, the Duchy of Milan was ceded to theAustrian Habsburgs. During the 18th century, the surface area of the duchy—despite its unification in 1745 with theDuchy of Mantua, which had strong autonomy from Milan—was further reduced, reaching a much smaller extension than present-day Lombardy.[40] The government of the Habsburgs of Austria was characterized by significant administrative reforms, which the sovereigns of the Austrian house—inspired by the principles ofenlightened absolutism—also introduced in their Lombard territories: for example, the rearrangement of theland register, the suppression of ecclesiastical censorship and the development of the silk industry.[41]
FollowingNapoleon Bonaparte's victorious campaign in northern Italy in 1796, the duchy, entrusted to an interim government junta, was ceded to theFrench Republic by the Habsburgs with theTreaty of Campo Formio in 1797. Already in 1796, the French had established the vassal state of theTranspadane Republic on the territories of the Duchy of Milan, which merged with theCispadane Republic in 1797 to form theCisalpine Republic, of which Milan became the capital.[42] After the defeat of Napoleon, on the basis of the decisions taken by theCongress of Vienna on 9 June 1815, the Duchy of Milan was not restored but became part of theKingdom of Lombardy–Venetia, a constituent land of theAustrian Empire. The kingdom ceased to exist when the remaining portion of it was annexed to theKingdom of Italy in 1866.[43]
^Dupuy, R. Ernest; Dupuy, Trevor N. (1993).The Harper Encyclopedia of Military History - From 3500 B.C. to the Present (Fourth ed.). HarperCollins Publishers. p. 518.ISBN0-06-270056-1.
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