Duke of Milan 1395-1402 (b. 1351) Son of Galeazzo II Visconti and Blanche of Savoy, Giangaleazzo married in 1360 Isabelle of Valois, daughter of King John II of France, receiving as her dowry the county of Vertus in Champagne and thus the title of 'Conte di Virtù' by which he was frequently known. On the death of his father (1378) he succeeded to the lordships of Pavia, Novara, Vercelli, Tortona, Alessandria, Valenza, Casale and Asti. In the early years of his rule he appeared to follow the guidance of his uncle Bernabò, and after the death of his first wife married in 1380 Bernabò's daughter Caterina. In 1365, however, in a skilful and daring coup, Giangaleazzo seized his father-in-law, imprisoned or exiled his nephews, and reunited all the territories subject to the Visconti. The powerful position which he now occupied was emphasized when his daughter Valentina was betrothed to Louis of Orléans, brother of Charles VI of France, in 1387, and then again with the grant by the Emperor Wenceslaus of the title of Duke of Milan in 1395.

From 1385 the speed, secrecy and lack of scruple shown in his attack upon Bernabò were employed in a series of diplomatic and military campaigns which were to bring him to hegemony in Italy: In 1387, in alliance with the Carrara, he seized Verona and Vicenza from Antonio della Scala; in 1388, in alliance with the Venetians, he struck against his erstwhile Carrara friends and occupied Padua, Bassano, Feltre, and Belluno. Such triumphs inevitably roused the suspicions and hostility of other powers. In particular the rise of his diplomatic influence in the Romagna, Tuscany, and Umbria provoked the rivalry of Florence, itself seeking at this time to extend its territories. Attempts to delineate respective spheres of influence failed and were followed by three wars (1390-92, 1397-98, 1400-02) in which Giangaleazzo achieved an apparently overwhelming predominance. He was recognized as signore of the Lunigiana (1398), of Pisa and Siena (1399), and of Perugia, Spoleto, and Assisi (1400). In June 1402 he took Bologna; Florence was encircled and was perhaps saved from conquest only by Giangaleazzo's death from plague.

Conforming in many ways to the conventional stereotype of the Italian Renaissance prince, Giangaleazzo combined high political skills with cold ruthlessness, reliance upon astrologers, and patronage of arts and letters. He fostered the university of Pavia, employed humanist secretaries, enjoyed the manuscript illumination of the Lombard school, and initiated the building of the Charterhouse of Pavia. It could be - as many historians claim - that his death saved the peninsula from the establishment of that 'Italian monarchy' which contemporary panegyrists and enemies alike saw as his ultimate aim. In Florence new forms of rhetorical, classicizing propaganda promoted by the civic humanists stressed emphatically Giangaleazzo's monarchical ambitions and contrasted them with the ideals of republican freedom. For this reason his premature death has been portrayed as a tragedy by nationalist historians, and as a merciful deliverance by those others who emphasize the importance of the existence of numerous independent courts and cities in the creation of Renaissance culture.

How far his ambitions were national rather than simply dynastic is not, however, clear, nor is it obvious that any national ambition he possessed could ever in fact have been achieved. Certainly his defeat of Rupert of Bavaria (battle of Brescia, October 1407), whom the Florentines had imprudently called into Lombardy against him, allowed him to pose as 'the defender of Italian liberty' against non-Italians. On the other hand, Venice showed no recognition of any threat of a national monarchy and remained neutral throughout the struggle. Above all, at his death his dominions disintegrated with such surprising speed as to suggest that his conquests were essentially ephemeral and without the potentiality of creating any lasting loyalties.

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