Visconti family
Their predominance in Milan was secured at the end of the 13th century and beginning of the 14th century by Ottone Visconti (Archbishop of Milan 1263-95) and his great-nephew, Matteo (Captain of the People 1287-1302; imperial vicar 1311-22). In 1349 the Council of the commune bestowed the signoria upon the heirs of Matteo in perpetuity. By this time a policy of continuous expansion had extended the family's rule to many other cities, among them Alessandria and Asti in Piedmont and Como, Novara, Vercelli, Bergamo, Brescia; Pavia, and Cremona in Lombardy. The Visconti never succeeded in breaking down the local particularism of the constituent parts of their dominions and forming them into a united state, but they did bring peace between hitherto rival communes; they also ensured a greater' measure of internal harmony between the city oligarchies over which they ruled. Yet, even when the hostile propaganda of their enemies has been discounted, their government was accompanied by all the cruelty, violence, and aggressive will characteristic of absolute régimes.
In the 1360s marriages into the French and English royal houses confirmed the family's status as a European power and in 1395 Giangaleazzo obtained the title of duke from the Emperor Wenceslaus. Giangaleazzo's seizure of the territories of his uncle, Bernabň, in 1385 made his branch of the family the dominant power in Italy during his lifetime. His premature death in 1402 was followed by the succession of his sons, the vicious and incompetent Giovanni Maria (Duke 1402-12) and then the more able Filippo Maria (Duke 1412-47), with whom the direct male line expired.
