# Filippo Maria Visconti

Filippo Maria Visconti (3 September 1392 – 13 August 1447) was the duke of Milan from 1412 to 1447. Reports stated that he was "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 surrender under Pope Martin V. He would return to war again, where another peace agreement was required to stop the war. He married twice and his second wife was Marie, whom he married in 1448. Marie was the daughter of his ally Amadeus VIII. When he died, Fillippo was the last of the Visconti male line and was succeeded by Francesco Sforza, husband to his natural daughter Bianca Maria Visconti, birth by his mistress Agnese del Maino.

## Biography

In 1402, when Filippo Maria was ten years old, his father died from plague, and his brother, 14-year-old Gian Maria, became the new Duke of Milan. Their mother Caterina worked for her son.
Gian Maria, however, was through the interference of people close to him. He therefore came to regard Caterina as threat to his power. On 18 August 1404, he had their mother imprisoned at Monza, where she died on 17 October 1404, the death was rumored to be caused by poison.
Filippo Maria Visconti became ruler of Pavia in 1402, succeeding his assassinated brother Gian Maria Visconti as Duke of Milan in 1412.
After the assassination of Gian Maria (16 May 1412) and her brother Condottiero Faucino Cane, Filippo Maria occupied himself to Condottiero's widow Beatrice Cane. In doing so, he acquired control over Condottiero's wealth and his armies urging him to gain control over Milan.
Filippo Maria was the brother of the deceased Gian Maria, the legal heir, as the son of Gian Galeazzo, who had usurped the lordship of Milan by overthrowing and murdering his uncle and father-in-law Bernabo Visconti, known as the maternal grandfather of Filippo Maria. Therefore, his succession to the lordship of Milan was opposed by other people, like his uncle Estorre Visconti and his cousin Giancarlo Visconti, who was an illegitimate son and legitimate grandson of Bernabo Visconti.
They had support by the Milanese people themselves, just after the death of Gian Maria. They would hold the title until the 16 June of that same year, when Filippo Maria managed to retake the city.
That same year, he confiscated several properties belonging to the Scotti family, including the Agazzano Castle. From Filippo's marriage to Beatrice Lascaris di Tenda, Countess of Biandrate and the widow of Facino Cane—the condottiere who had power between the factions of Filippo's elder brother and his mother, and Caterina Visconti, the regent—Filippo Maria received half a million florins; but when Beatrice was interested in the affairs of state, he accused her of adultery and had her beheaded at the castle of Binasco in 1418.
Despite reports of self-hate, he was purportedly a good politician, and by employing condottieri to Carmagnola, Piccinino—where his troops were stationed at the Battle of Anghiari, in 1440— and with Francesco Sforza, he managed to recover the Lombard portion of his father's duchy.
Upon 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), starting a war with Florence. 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, who was an ally. With Visconti's support, Amadeus reigned 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. He was the last of the Visconti family's in direct male line, and was succeeded in the duchy, after the short-lived Ambrosian republic, by Francesco Sforza (1401–1466). In 1441, Francesco married Filippo Maria's only heir, his natural daughter Bianca Maria (1425–1468) by his mistress Agnese del Maino (1401–1465).

## Art

The oldest extant Tarot decks, then called carte da trionfi, were probably commissioned by Filippo Maria Visconti.