The Visconti Victorious 2.0

The Visconti Victorious
In the fourteenth century, Italy's famed cities- the proud communes who had humbled the Hohenstaufen Kaisers- fell victim to the insidious, inevitable erosion of traditional institutions, and succumbed to the rule of tyrants. The Papacy had fled to Avignon and Imperial Germany collapsed into interregnum. The last of the Hohenstaufens fell to the headsman's axe in Naples' central square, and his haughty Sicilian kingdom became the prize contested by Spanish Aragon and French Provence. The Pope's absence in Avignon left Central Italy leaderless; Rome festered in ignonimity, and the communes, left to their own devices, succumbed one after another to ambitious princes. Amidst the shifting kaleidoscope of familial and regional rivalries, the streets of northern cities became battlegrounds, even as the cities vied amongst each other for dominance over their hinterlands. In the great city of Milan, the vestigial Guelf-Ghibelline feud between Pope and Emperor evolved, overlaying on existing local rivalries. It was here, in the thirteenth century, that the greatest of the Ghibelline dynasties seized power, assuming the mantle of protector and patron for the burgeoning mercantile and industrial interests in the city.

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Well situated in the fertile Po Valley, mediate between Po and Alps, the Adda and the Ticino, Milan grew into a natural entrepot between east and west, north and south, Italy and Germany, the Mediterranean and the North Atlantic; as Italy was situated in the center of Europe, Milan was the beating heart of northern Italy, and she prospered, gold and steel flowing like blood through veins of stone, mud, brick, and wood. Her legacy was imperious indeed- Mediolanum was Diocletian's capital, Milan was the center of St Ambrose, rival to St Peter's pontifical authority; Milan had birthed the Lombard League and led it to victory, reviving from the ashes of Barbarossa's fury to see his dynasty destroyed. She was a city of cloth and iron, bankers and blacksmiths; but her wealth was sapped by infighting, the old Guelf-Ghibelline feuds diverting the city's energies in internecine squabbling. The free men of the city sought a protector, and in the process gained a master- first the Della Torre, then the Visconti.


Archbishop Ottone Visconti of Milan is properly considered the founder of both the Visconti dynasty and of Lombard despotism. He (temporarily) banished the Della Torre and asserted lapsed powers vested in the bishops, securing his son Matteo the Great as the Captain General of the People and Imperial Vicar of Italy. Matteo, exiled for a decade by the Della Torre, returned and destroyed them, cementing his rule as Milan's Grand Signore; his power was that of a Caesar- an urban dictator, rather than a feudal prince. By 1349 the Milanese assembly had granted his descendants hereditary right to Lordship over the city, abandoning the pretense of elective government.

Like other grand signorias, the Visconti nominally ruled on behalf of the German emperors. Vacant and distant, their presence nevertheless cast a fundamental uncertainty over the state's legitimacy, and the Visconti habitually poached every title and office they could get their hands on. The true source of their power, however, was always the tacit support of the “borghesia”- the urban middle classes. Matteo and his descendants offered peace and stability, with which to enjoy tidy profits; territorial expansion brought new economic opportunities and markets, food imports, and the grudging respect of rural aristocrats who might otherwise prey on the city's commerce. Thus the Visconti state seemed, to modern observers, as much a corporation as an empire- mercantilist and expansionist, always resting on the pillars of internal peace, domestic security, and foreign prestige and profit.


Neighboring cities and aristocrats were compelled to submit, sometimes voluntarily, sometimes through coercion. Bloody infighting left bitter feuds, and many exiles were prepared to sell their city to a foreign army if it gave them the chance for revenge. Internally, the feuding communes often welcomed a foreign power able to enforce peace with an even hand. As great foreign kingdoms coalesced the city states found themselves at a further disadvantage in international affairs, an especially harmful scenario for wealthy merchants. Thus the decline of the commune accelerated, building momentum behind Milanese expansion, and a self-fulfilling sensibility among Padanian intellectuals of the necessity for a great prince, who could unify the feuding city states and reconstitute Italy as a functional political entity. In the fourteenth century, Lombard bishops already wrote that, “nisi habueriunt regem unum proprium et naturalem dominum qui non sit barbare nationis et regnum eius continuet naturalis posteritas sucesivas.” Lombardy was a shadow kingdom, and needed a native king.

Such sentiments were not restricted to Lombardy. In 1347 the quixotic Cola Di Rienzo seized control of the city of Rome, ruling for four months as the Tribune of the People; he vaingloriously sought the restoration of Rome as a new Caput Mundi, capital of a reconstituted Italy, and summoned representatives from the northern cities to create an assembly. Rienzo's tenure did not last particularly long; he was ousted by the Roman nobility, but the Pope's long absence and the Western Schism had crippled the Papacy, and seen Rome herself decline to her worst nadir since the fall of the Western Empire. In Rome, as in the north, lack of a clear central authority crippled the city and created a vacuum waiting to be filled, but there was as yet no prince in the peninsula capable of asserting authority over Rome itself.

In the Papacy's absence, Giovanni Visconti had transformed Milan into the hegemon of northern Italy. He subjugated Genoa, exploiting the latter's defeat at the hands of Venice, and purchased Bologna from its local prince, defying the Popes who nominally ruled the Romagna. His two nephews Galeazzo and Bernabo were married to the Count of Savoy's sister and a daughter of the Veronese Della Scala, securing ties to his two neighbors; upon his death in 1354 the two partitioned his estates. Galeazzo Visconti inherited the western third. Genoa was lost to Milan in the chaos following Giovanni's demise, and the papacy reasserted some nominal control over Bologna. Galeazzo thus found himself preoccupied with securing Visconti influence in Piedmont. He began by conquering Pavia, capital of the old Lombard kingdom, finally subduing the city in 1359 after a valiant but doomed resistance by its citizens; thereafter it became his capital. Milanese expansion triggered numerous coalitions- the Pope and Florence allied to check Bernabo's advances on Bologna, and Galeazzo's own brother in law Amadeus VI of Savoy went to war over Montferrat. In 1373 the Emperor revoked their Vicariate, and a Papal army entered Lombardy, triggering revolts in Parma, Piacenza, Bergamo and the Valtellina. Yet the coalition could not strike the killing blow- Savoy accepted a treaty securing Montferrat and renewed their alliance, the Pope signed a truce, and the rebel cities were subdued over the next three years. Galeazzo Visconti died peacefully on August 4th 1378, and was succeeded by his son Gian Galeazzo, the Count of Vertus by right of marriage.

Born to Galeazzo Visconti and Blanche of Savoy in Milan on September 28th 1351, Gian Galeazzo Visconti grew to be a tall, well built and handsome prince, with the famous red hair of his dynasty. From a young age he was distinguished by his intellect and studious nature, imbibing the early stirrings of Renassance culture in the opulent Castello of Pavia. He was married to Isabella of France, who his father purchased for a sum of 600,000 francs; the marriage was fruitful, with one daughter and three sons surviving the marriage. Gian Galeazzo was born on March 4th 1366, Azzone in 1368, Valentina on 1371 and Carlo on September 11th 1372; Carlo's mother Isabella barely survived the birth, and Gian Galeazzo named him Carlo Maria in honor of the Virgin Mary as thanks for the survival of spouse and son.[1]

Gian Galeazzo took to the field of battle for the first and only time in 1373; he and his army were put to flight, but the following year the prince secured a peace with the Savoy; from the beginning, the prince was more inclined to the pen than the sword. In 1375 his gout ridden father appointed the twenty three year old prince the castellan of Novara and other eastern cities, giving him the opportunity to experience governance and defense of frontier cities. In 1378, as his father was dying, Gian Galeazzo Visconti demonstrated for the first time his skill as an unscrupulous and ambitious prince. His brother in law, the weak and arbitrary marquis of Montferrat, appealed to him in subduing the city of Asti, occupied opportunistically by a German mercenary during the recent upheavals. Gian Galeazzo entered into the city in February, persuaded the wayward condotierri to name him governor, and assumed de facto control. Montferrat appealed vainly to other powers in and outside of Italy, but Gian Galeazzo had, without violence or rancor, conquered the city bloodlessly, and would not be evicted from his prize. This was how Gian Galeazzo preferred to conquer- as a fait accompli, in the guise of an ally, and with the way well prepared in advance through careful diplomacy and intrigue.

For three years the lord of Pavia plotted and schemed carefully against his uncle and nominal suzerain Bernabo, betraying no outward sign of his intentions; he meekly submitted to betroth his sons Gian Galeazzo and Azzone to Caterina and Maddalena Visconti. The scheduled marriage of his son Gian Galeazzo to Caterina offered the opportunity to seize Bernabo and three of his sons, Carlo, Marco and Radolfo; we are told that Gian Galeazzo, who was well known to keep a large retinue for fear of assassins, sought the bridegroom's company in prayer outside Milan, and Bernabo, in his arrogance, placed himself into his nephew's power.[2] Bernabo himself died in Lombard custody, and Urban IV of Rome agreed to sell a dispensation and annul the betrothal, on grounds of Bernabo's tyranny and the incestuous nature of the marriage; that the Pope feared Gian Galeazzo might abandon Rome for Avignon if he excommunicated him, and received rich gifts and tributes from the duke, certainly also played a role in his rapproachment with the new Visconti patriarch. Gian Galeazzo organized a “Processus,” or trial of Bernabo, shrouding his usurpation on the pretext that Bernabo had failed to lift the imperial deprivation of 1372; the document additionally listed the many grievances of both Gian Galeazzo and the citizens of Milan. Milan itself welcomed the lord of Pavia- for he had amassed a reputation as a wise and beneficent prince, and Bernabo's treasury enabled him to shower his new subjects with tax relief and festivals. Gian Galeazzo, characteristically, conquered Milan at the behest of her adoring populace, after years of meticulous plotting and maneuvering; this was a pattern that would repeat throughout his reign.


Reclusive and scholarly, the Count was charming and fluently eloquent. Although adroit in the rare instances of state pageantry, he was more typically encountered in intimate settings, where he could personally lavish his wit and charm on a wavering ally or wary ambassador. Filippo della Molza recounted that “When the lord Count saw me, he rose to his feet and came forward to meet me, and seized my hand and made me sit down, whether I would or no.” On a later encounter Molza met the Count reading the Bible during the evening. At other times the Count would be seen scurrying through the courtyard of his palace, offering barely a nod to passing courtiers as he scurried about, thoroughly lost in thought and preoccupied with the affairs of state. Often the lord would go hunting, moving informally without his court and deliberately keeping his location uncertain; Sienese envoys would in 1392 take an informal audience in a glen during an interval in the hunting, the lord patiently listening to their appeals before rising and giving his answer. Gian Galeazzo was a prince of the Renaissance, but his court was not solely occupied with artists, scholars and other hangers on- it was the nexus of a growing network of soldiers, diplomats, envoys, clerks and administrators; for the Renaissance Prince did not merely patronize art and learning, but wielded his energies and ambitions in service to the state, and in this manner too Gian Galeazzo Visconti was a true prince of the Renaissance.


The Visconti ruled over a diverse patchwork of cities, estates, and territories. Milan- a bustling industrial metropolis of over 100,000 souls- and other great cities had to be balanced against the fertile banks of the Po, the entrenched feudal estates of Piedmont and the rugged and independent-minded communes along the Alps. Union between Pavia and Milan required a general reform and unification of the administration, and while previous Visconti had refrained from needlessly antagonizing regional particularism Gian Galeazzo was determined by necessity of circumstance and his own nature towards a more centralized and bureaucratic form of government. His forced usurpation of Bernabo opened a dangerous door towards autonomy- the regional lords and the urban Communes agitating for renewed independence from central government. Gian Galeazzo acted decisively against these efforts- he passed a string of laws prohibiting public ownership of arms, mass gatherings, and unlicensed fortifications, and cracked down on unlicensed guilds and associations; these triggered riots in Pavia, which were quickly and ruthlessly suppressed. Gian Galeazzo had won over the respectable merchant elites, positioning himself as a guarantor of public order against the mob. Gian Galeazzo did not overturn the general development of Italian government, instead repurposing and refining it; the communes had by the 14th century largely fallen into the same pattern of Signorial despotism. Unrest and instability led city after city to elevate a prince, vesting him with authority to maintain public order, intervene against feuds, enforce impartial justice, support commerce and industry, and promote agricultural development. Milan's government was exceptional principally for the extent of its territorial dominions; like many lords, Gian Galeazzo turned to the Holy Roman Empire, claiming authority as Imperial Vicar of Italy; he also turned to the French, asserting a parallel and at time contradictory concept of hegemony. Just as French nationalist scholars proclaimed their king to be “emperor in his own kingdom” the Visconti proclaimed that a state- whether republican or royal- held full sovereignty, and was entitled to treat with all foreign powers as a full equal. Unwilling to fully break with the Emperors, yet also paying lip service to their authority, the Visconti jealously hoarded every possible form of legitimacy as a pre-emptive defense against any foreign or domestic rivals; in every city that the Visconti conquered- including Milan- they first orchestrated an election by which the “people” of the city ceded sovereignty to the Visconti. In theory this principle- like that of the Imperial Viciariate- opened the possibility that the dynasty could be overthrown from below; in practice Milan's arms overawed the public, and Gian Galeazzo was able, during his lifetime, to use compromise and coercion to maintain order. The person of the Prince was endowed special authority, like the kings of France; they believed themselves embody absolute justice and authority, and their agents were expected to maintain the same impartiality. Already Bernabo had comported himself in the manner of a king; Gian Galeazzo continued and expanded his power as supreme lord of Lombardy. The communal governments were repurposed, with judicial authority resting on centrally appointed Podestas. Local councils maintained administrative autonomy at least temporarily, but Gian Galeazzo eroded the financial and political privileges of both the rural nobility and the urban burghers. By 1382 he had abolished the customary fixed sum and assumed direct control over Pavia's finances. He was not able to immediately extend this throughout Lombardy, nor abolish traditional prohibitions on non-citizens owning property within city limits.

Administrative oversight obliged him to reform the government and create state organs. He created two new councils- a Secret or Privy Council which managed foreign affairs, and a Judicial Council; all envoys, foreign and domestic, were obliged to present themselves before the councils in Pavia. A special branch of the council, the “Camera”, addressed taxation and finance, under the Master of the Entries; a “Maestri della entrate ordinarie” in Milan and a “Maestri della entrate stradinarie” in Pavia, handling respectively financial policy and ordinary taxation and extraordinary taxation and emergency finances. Ordinary taxation was restricted to imposts- customs duties and various taxes-in-kind for goods such as wine or salt; in times of emergency the state could levy direct taxes on property, which were scaled based on an “Estimo” or an assessment of the citizens' wealth and means. All of these reforms served Gian Galeazzo's rational mind, clearly directed towards the expansion of his dominion over Lombardy.

Gian Galeazzo's usurpation triggered a diplomatic crisis with several foreign courts. Bernabo had sired fifteen children and married them across Europe. He had married his son Carlo Visconti to Beatrice, daughter of John II, count of Armagnac, and his daughters Taddea and Catarina to the Bavarian Dukes Stephen III and Frederick of Bavaria-Ingolstadt and Bavaria-Landshut, respectively.[3] The former's daughter Isabella had married Charles VI of France in 1385, at the machinations of Duke Philip of Burgundy, who hoped to build a Franco-German alliance to resolve the Schism and advance his interests in the Low Countries. The match dismayed Gian Galeazzo, who had offered his own daughter Valentina as a bride, but he could not overcome the influence of the Duke of Burgundy.[4] Nevertheless, at his wife's urging, Gian Galeazzo agreed to marry his eldest son Gian Galeazzo II to the Princess of Anjou, who unfortunately died in 1383 at the age of thirteen; Gian Galeazzo was then betrothed to Sophia of Bavaria, daughter of Duke John of Bavaria Ingolstadt. John, alone among his brothers, had not taken one of Bernabo's daughters; reluctant to support their costly expeditions into Milan or Stephen's extravagant court, and in 1391 re-partitioned the duchy after the death of their brother Frederick without male issue.

In addition to his children by Princess of France, Gian Galeazzo had two known paramours and several bastards. Agnese Mantegazza of Milan was bestowed a castle, and many rich gifts. A record in 1390 lists gifts to Lady Lusotta mistress of the lord Count of Virtus” and two bastards, Antonio and Daniele. A third bastard, Agnese's bastard Gabriele Maria Visconti, benefited from Gian Galeazzo's affection towards his mother, but it was his daughter Valentina who was dearest to the Count, and would form the cornerstone of his foreign dynastic policy. Coming of age in the ebullient and resplendent court at Pavia, Valentina, graceful and elegant, loved all things beautiful. Like her father she patronized art, sculpture and the scholarly pursuits; Pavia was not only the old capital of Lombard Italy, but also seat of a famous university, and the count transformed it into one of the preeminent institutions in Europe. Valentina herself was sacrificed on the altar of state- as all princesses were in that era. She was engaged to the feckless emperor Wenceslaus IV of Bohemia; and upon her departure for Germany, her father shut himself away in Pavia, refusing even to speak of her lest he lose himself to his tears.[4] The fruits of the marriage were made immediately apparent: his new son in law formally bestowed upon him the title of Duke of Milan, transforming the Visconti into hereditary imperial nobility.

To secure his regime and pacify the western frontier, he sought rapprochement with Amadeus of Savoy. Within days of Bernabo's deposition, the Count received a rich gift of warhorses from Bernabo's stable; Amadeus, Gian Galeazzo's cousin, had his own security concerns- the hostility of Saluzzo, his ambitions against Provence in the Arelat, his entanglement in French politics- and readily sought an accord. In November 1381 he and Gian Galeazzo met and signed, in person, a treaty of friendship in Alessandria; four days later he accepted Gian Galeazzo's arbitration of a dispute with the Marquis of Montferrat. Like his father Gian Galeazzo decided to outsource Piedmont to his son and heir; in 1383, the seventeen year old Gian Galeazzo II was named governor of Piedmont after his marriage ceremony to the seven year old Sophia of Bavaria. John sought to reconcile himself to the new lord of Milan and additionally pursue an alliance against the Austrians and possibly his wayward brothers- it was agreed that the couple would receive Bavarian claims on Tirol “below the Brenner Pass” as well as the town of Deggendorf in Bavaria; the dowry, although welcome, was less valuable to the Visconti than the prestige of a quasi-imperial bride, to further secure the approval of Germany's nobility.

The Duke of Milan, having consolidated his position, was inclined to push his borders outward. Gian Galeazzo had four main compass points guiding his ambitions- Genoa, Bologna, the mouth of the Po and the Alpine passes- the natural frontiers of Lombardy. In 1384 his attentions were turned east, embroiling him in the feud of the Della Scala of Verona and the Carrara of Padua. Carrara was an older ally of Milan, and the Della Scala had- alone among the powers of Italy- granted asylum to a son of Bernabo Visconti; the lord of Milan was naturally aggrieved. Yet war with Verona risked a confrontation with Venice. This was not in and of itself an insurmountable obstacle for the duke, but he did maneuver to neutralize the Venetians before acting against them. Entering into Friuli as a herald of peace, he orchestrated an alliance of the lesser lords of Ferrara and Mantua, thus stealing a march on Venice and forestalling their influence over these principalities. He then concluded an alliance with Carrara, promising him Vicenza in a general war against the Scalinger, but simultaneously opened talks with both Venice and Verona, keeping his options open as war loomed; a Venetian admiral entered his service in 1385, serving as an intermediary, and it was given to understood in Venice that Visconti support for Carrara extended only against the Veronese, and that he was amicably disposed towards the Republic's own interests in the region. In Germany Albert of Tirol was bribed into closing the Brenner Pass; after the outbreak of war between Carrara and Della Scala in 1386 the Milanese alliance invaded Verona. Gian Galeazzo finally presented terms to the Veronese after Carrara annihilated their army outside Padua, demanding the lands around Lake Garda, which the Veronese in their desperation were prepared to grant. He had no real claim to these lands, which had been the dowry of his uncle's wife, but his objective was rather grander; so secretive were his plans that even his sons advised him to accept the Veronese offer, mediated by the Venetians in order to restrain the duke's ambitions. Gian Galeazzo was in contact with the Veronese dissidents within the city; emperor Wenceslaus turned a blind eye towards his father in law's actions, having reinstated the Visconti as Imperial Vicars of Italy. Gian Galeazzo's armies grew from the castoffs of his enemies, as he outbid the condotierri, and Della Scala's beaten army disintegrated, his soldiers deserting en masse. A Veronese army along the Garda turned about, declaring itself for Milan, and marched on Verona, where the citizens rose in revolt and threw open the gates to the Lombards. The Visconti standard was planted above the citadel, and the city dedicated itself to Gian Galeazzo, whom they awaited as a liberator.


Verona's capture led to a direct intercession by the other powers of Italy, still hoping to restrain Gian Galeazzo, but Carrara- unlike the lord of Milan- showed no restraint or tact in victory. Only now was he made aware of the nature of his ally; ignoring both the promises of autonomy granted to Verona, and the antebellum promise of Vicenza to the Paduan despot, Gian Galeazzo unilaterally annexed the entire della Scala state; Carrara, who viewed Venice as his principal enemy, grudgingly came to terms with Milan's treachery, and pressed for concessions in Friuli as compensation. This caused a collapse of peace negotiations by irritating Venice; the Venetians subsequently resolved to destroy the Carrarese, entering into a new alliance with Milan to partition the Paduan state between the two of them. Carrara, like the della Scala, suddenly found himself alone and friendless, as all the lords of Northern Italy bowed before the union of Lion and Serpent; in vain he attempted to lure the Austrians into Italy with the promise of restoring Belluno and Feltre to them. Milan occupied Padua in the same manner as Verona- after its lord fled, and the city opened its gates, the Lombards entered unopposed and orchestrated a communal election whereby the citizens “nominated” Gian Galeazzo to rule them. He received the submission of Bellun and Feltre in a similar fashion, and Venice occupied Treviso in accordance with the alliance.[6]

In the span of less than a year Gian Galeazzo had become a Duke, the Imperial Vicar of Italy, and the father in law of his nominal sovereign; he had advanced his eastern frontier to the Adriatic, secured the allegiance of Ferrara, Mantua, and Urbino, entered into a coalition with Venice, and made himself the hegemon of all Padania. Venice was his ally, the Doge of Genoa his friend, the king of France his wife's cousin, the king of Germany his daughter's husband; he had the anxious ear of the Avignon Pope Clement and the friendship of the Roman pope Urban. Florence watched all of this with alarm, certain that if left unchecked this new and dangerous prince, erudite and empathetic, was soon to be the ruler of all of Italy.

[1]Here is the PoD: Gian Galeazzo's wife Isabella died in childbirth along with her son Carlo, and his other two sons died prematurely due to disease. Their survival places him in a much stronger dynastic position, and will greatly expand his options diplomatically and strategically.
[2]This is similar to how Bernabo was seized by Gian Galeazzo historically; he lured Bernabo into a church in the guise of a pilgrim, and then seized him with his guards.
[3]These marriages are historical.
[4]Isabella's survival is significant, because she is the daughter of King John of France. Gian Galeazzo was somewhat more rash in his youth, and TTL would probably be arrogant enough to seek to make his daughter Queen of France immediately after his coup.
[5]The behavior is the same as Valentina's historic marriage to Louis of Orleans, but given Isabella's survival the match with Louis is less likely; the Imperial match suits Gian Galeazzo's purposes better, though as we will see it will have its own consequences for Milan.
[6]The key divergences, so far, are that Gian Galeazzo seized power four years ahead of time, and also seized another of Bernabo's sons; he also has avoided the scandal of his proposed with Princess Maria of Sicily, thus his ambition is less tempered. As a result of this, and being more secure, he intervened sooner against the Veronese; the general course of the war is the same as it was historically- albeit roughly four years sooner- including the betrayal and partition of the Carrara, since Carrara was unlikely to alter his behavior.
 
So, is this a sequel to your Visconti Victorious tl or is this a brand new remake of it?

I can't really tell.
 
the Imperial match suits Gian Galeazzo's purposes better, though as we will see it will have its own consequences for Milan.

In the long run it wouldn't affect Milan or really, anything. Viscontis got ducal title and Imperial recognition anyway and Wenceslas wasn't able to maintain his hold on HRE, nor to have children.
 
In the long run it wouldn't affect Milan or really, anything. Viscontis got ducal title and Imperial recognition anyway and Wenceslas wasn't able to maintain his hold on HRE, nor to have children.

Depends on whether he has children ttl, but the other impact is that Louis doesn't get a claim to Milan.
Also- what happens when his vassals depose him?
 
Depends on whether he has children ttl, but the other impact is that Louis doesn't get a claim to Milan.
Also- what happens when his vassals depose him?

Well, IOTL he couldn't have children, so I don't expect him to have any ITTL.
Well, IOTL he didn't care about electors deposing him and in Bohemia, he was too convienient to be deposed.
 
The Shadow Kingdom
The Shadow Kingdom

Now that he had hegemony over Padania, the Duke of Milan turned his attention, somewhat reticently, to the south. Bologna and Genoa were the two lodestars of Lombard revanchist ambition- the gateways to the Tyhrennian and the Romagna, respectively- and the latter city especially seemed ripe for conquest. Yet the Bolognese, leveraging their strategic position, had the ear of the major powers of the peninsula- Venice, the Papacy, and the Republic of Florence; Milan could not attack them without offending the other Italian powers, and perhaps triggering a hostile coalition. It was the Florentines who would prove most hostile to the Visconti.

Gian Galeazzo had mediated a peace between Bernabo and the Tuscan cities of Siena and Florence in , and these ties allowed him to curry favor in Siena especially. Siena had fallen on hard times; her silk industries were declining along with her plague-ridden population, and Florentine encroachment on her hinterland placed the city in dangerously precarious position. She had lost the rich val de Chiesa to resentment of the population, and feared interference in the similarly restive commune of Montepulciano.

Florentine aggression paved the way for Milan's entry into Tuscany. For all that contemporary Florentine diplomats denounced the Count as a tyrant and a warmonger, their neighbors recognized the howling of the wolves, and preferred the distant yet firm arm of the Visconti. Pope Urban returned to Tuscany from Genoa in 138, and Florence reopened talks with the Duke of Milan for a possible alliance against the Papacy; these were welcomed but ignored. The duke- pressured by his sons- had resolved on war, and was determined to seize Bologna in a fait accompli. Siena's offer of homage was politely refused, but she welcomed Milanese troops and entered into alliance with the duke, joining the League; Siena was followed by Perugia, Urbino, and the Ravennese Malatesta, a league now clearly arrayed against Florence. Florence herself secured the allegiance of Faenza, Imola, and Bologna in the Romagna, and maintained support for the Pro-Florentine party in Pisa via the ; yet that city had not forgotten her traditional hostility to Florence, and there were murmurings of discontent among the Pisan Ghibellines. Gian Galeazzo held his finger to the pulse of Tuscany, and could name all the malcontents by name; he was in contact with the of Pisa and many others. Behind every corner the Florentines perceived the viscontigiani working to encircle and destroy them- but the net was of their own making, and their struggles only tightened the noose.

Both sides resorted to the pen before the sword; Milan spoke of resisting the Guelph tyrants, the Florenbtines rose the banner of republican liberty against the tyrant, but beneath the haughty rhetoric was the nakedly brutal logic of secular interests. Florence wished to expand into Tuscany; the great merchant families had staked their fortunes on securing regional dominance, and were not prepared to allow a foreign power such as the Milanese to interfere within their spheres of influence. Milan took up the challenge, and asserted her right to protect the weaker states against the stronger. The Florentines, together with Bologna, demanded a border along the Territory of Modena and the river Secchia as the dividing line between their respective spheres of influence. Pietro Gambacorta, the pro-Florentine lord of Pisa, attempted in vain to mediate personally with the Duke, but failed, for Gian Galeazzo was now resolved on war.

As the crisis boiled over, the Duke installed his second son Azzone in Verona, a youth destined for glory.[1] Nineteen years old in 1388 and as yet unmarried, he had inherited his father's fair complexion and fiery mane, and a keen and industrious intellect well suited to soldiery. Like his parents he was personally vivacious and charming- but whereas his father was the consummate statesman and a reserved, pensive scholar, and his mother a gregarious and generous soul, Azzone embodied the ideal Medieval warrior prince: audacious, gregarious, reveling in the opulent majesty of Pavia's Renaissance court, which surrounded him as snugly as fur on a hound. His status- unwed and unbetrothed- was in part perhaps lingering regret over his sister Valentina's marriage, in part the prince's own diffident nature- for unlike his father he readily enjoyed the company of women, siring twenty eight known bastards with at least a dozen mistresses and paramours over his tumultuous life- and as Italy did not disfavor bastards, these sons and his brothers' own marriages ensured that the Visconti line was likely to continue with or without his marriage. Azzone demonstrated- in striking contrast to his father- a ready aptitude for the military, combining an easy charisma and belligerent bravery with a keen, workmanlike mind well suited to the mundane oversight of both armies and government administration. His appointment to Friuli was a clear endorsement by his father- for Gian Galeazzo was sensitive to the danger from the east, and would not have entrusted the task to Azzone if he thought him incapable.

Azzone's appointment was well justified: on 1389, Francesco Carrara, the exiled lord of Padua and Verona, crossed through Austrian Carinthia into Friuli with two thousand infantry and the backing of Duke Stephen of Bavaria, attacking Padua while the Lombards were preoccupied in the Romagna. Prince Azzone rebuffed the invasion- his scouts detected Carrara's force and his soldiers maintained the walls against them; his army was able to crush an abortive rebellion within the city and maintain control of the gates. Carrara was forced to commit to a siege; correspondingly, Gian Galeazzo's general Ubaldini decided to continue with his own attack on Bologna, trusting the prince to hold out. The city, despairing of relief, appealed to Rome for aid; a papal ambassador attempted to intercede and take control of Bologna, but the Milanese stalled for time and barred his passing, preventing the Papal banner from being formally raised over their enemy's walls. Bolognese dissidents had been in secret contact with the Visconti and proposed to dedicate their city to Milan. As the siege dragged on Ubaldini himself had opened his own negotations with the dissidents, and they finally succeeded in opening the gate. Bologna, like Verona and Padua, admitted the duke's forces after an urban revolt cast out the lord.[1] Once Bologna had fallen, Ubaldini rushed north towards Padua, which still held out for the Visconti, meeting and routing the Bavarians near Verona before they could join with the Carrarese. Carrara, upon learning of the defeat, became terrified that his mercenaries would betray him; in the night, he fled with his treasury and his closest compatriots across the Alps into Germany, whereupon he became a guest of Duke Stephen of Bavaria Landshut. Stephen's entry into Italy had been delayed by the opposition of Duke John of Bavaria, who agreed to send three hundred knights south to aid his son in law, placing himself directly in opposition to his brothers Stephen and Albert. This delay, and the broader failure of Gian Galeazzo's enemies to combine effectively against him, proved fatal to the coalition.

Further south, the Florentines were under an increasingly effective blockade- although pressing Siena hard, they were nearly surrounded by Gian Galeazzo's allies- Ferrara[2], Siena, Perugia, Genoa, Urbino and the Malatesta of Rimini. Lucca, tentatively neutral and independent, was induced to sever ties with Florence by the arrival of Lombard soldiers in Massa. The Romagnan princes divided amongst themselves and used the war to settle old grudges between themselves. Azzone was granted command for a campaign into the Romagna to sever Florence's link to the Adriatic. On January 9th, 1389, Azzone's army appeared suddenly outside Imola and triggered a revolt against the Papal legate Luigi Alidosi; thereafter allying with the Ordelaffi of Forli, he assaulted Faenza on the 4th of February, taking and sacking the city; although wounded in the fighting he intervened to protect the city's church, where the bishop and several dozen civilians had taken refuge. For this the citizens would gratefully name him Azzone the Magnanimous.

With Romagna supine, Gian Galeazzo negotiated a new League at Pavia, whereby his allies- Genoa, Siena, Lucca, Ferrara, Mantua, Urbino- pledged to maintain peace between themselves- and tacitly agreed to separate themselves from the Florentines.[3] Florence found itself totally isolated in Italy, a ripe plum the Visconti vipers were determined to take for themselves, and in their desperation they appealed to the French, offering- as the Genoese had done once before- to submit their republic to Charles VI in return for his support against Milan. This act of desperation was to prove the republic's undoing. France was too far away and too preoccupied to offer immediate aid, while Pope Urban excommunicated them, and Pisa was induced to revolt against its pro-Florentine despot. The city was forced to sue for peace, which was mediated by the Venetians; all recognized it as terms of surrender. Florence was forced to return the disputed territory to Milan, and join a League led by the Milanese, pledging to maintain the peace of Italy by banning the condotierri companies from the peninsula and averting alliances or conspiracies against fellow members; in return the Milanese and their allies agreed to abandon the blockade. As Milan had a much larger army than Florence, banning mercenaries decisively shifted the balance against the republic, and so long as she was unable to enter into foreign alliances the Florentines would be isolated and easily destroyed in a future war.

For the moment the French did not intercede against Gian Galeazzo; France was preoccupied with the tenuous negotiations with the English at Leulingham, and Isabella was able to personally intercede on behalf of her husband. But events in Rome would precipitate a general crisis in Franco-Lombard relations. The decrepit Urban died, unmourned, in October 1389; Azzone at the time was wintering his army in Perugia. At once he perceived the opportunity, and seized it on his own initiative without consulting with or informing his father. He and sixty heavily armed companions rode south and surprised the lax Romans, who were not prepared for an attack, and many of its watchmen were caught gambling or carousing on duty; the caput mundi, seat of Latin Christianity, passed into Visconti control due to the licentiousness of its defenders. Rome itself had fallen far, its ancient Aurelian Walls enclosing a squalid city of ten thousand souls, barely a tenth the size of great metropolises like Naples or Florence and far removed from the half million who had inhabited it during the Empire's peak during Late Antiquity. Much of the city's land had been given over to farms and pasture, and both plague and the long absence of the Papal court had robbed the city of its vitality; barely three decades prior, the city had overthrown papal government entirely for a few scant months, reasserting the ancient communal self government. It was to these malcontents that Azzone turned, but he overreached himself with his ambition. He broke apart the Papal Conclave, blocking the ascension of the capable Neapolitan , and took the government of the city into his own hands. Whether he ultimately intended to deliver up the city to Clement as some of his enemies alleged or merely assert control over Rome in the manner of Cola di Rienzo was not clear, but his aggression against the Cardinals was enough to trigger an insurrection within the city. Besieged in the Castel Sant'Angelo, the rest of his army menacing the city from beyond the Aurelian walls, Azzone- never one to equivocate in times of crisis- cast aside his earlier misgivings and arranged a hasty papal coronation. He presented Pope Boniface to the crowd, and declared himself willing “to defend the city to his last breath” against the French and all other foreigners; the pope in turn ceded to him all Papal rights to the Margrave of Tuscany, and tasked Azzone with clearing out the Clementine Orsini, lord of Spoleto and Orvieto, sole lord of the Papal Patrimony to maintain loyalty to Avignon.

Azzone, playing the dutiful servant, thereafter turned his father's men against the Orsini, spending the following Spring of 1390 conquering his duchy. Having evicted the Orsini he refused to surrender Spoleto to a papal governor, instead seizing control of the city and additionally occupying Perugia without resistance. Boniface's governor found the gates of Spoleto closed against him; the city recalled their loyalty to Avignon and contempt for Rome's authority, and haughtily professed that they would again seek Avignon's protection if Boniface deposed their new prince. The Pope yielded, and agreed to invest Azzone as Duke of Spoleto, although he was obliged to renounce, for himself and his heirs, all claims on his father's dominions in Lombardy, and additionally to return Orvieto, which was too close to Rome for Boniface to allow it to remain in the hands of his vassal. Azzone immediately sold his rights to Tuscany to his brother Carlo Maria, and turned east, asserting his rule over the Adriatic littoral of the Papacy. He attacked Ancona alongside the Venetians in 1391, but a storm scattered their fleet, and with finances and supplies running low he agreed to withdraw in exchange for a tribute of 70,000 florins. Fermo yielded to him, as did , and by the end of 1392 he was in control of nearly all of Umbria and the Marche. In the span of two short years Azzone Visconti had become the master of much of Central Italy.

Pope Boniface was never comfortable with the ambitious and energetic viper to his east; but recognizing the weakness of his own position, he was not yet prepared to disown him. The interdependence of the two men was emphasized after another revolt in 1391 forced the Pope to flee to Perugia, placing himself at the Duke's mercy. Azzone returned with an army, and forced entry into the city, bloodily suppressing the mob. The Romans had grown accustomed to the lax hand of self government and resented Boniface's attempts at enforcing new taxation and centralized control; Azzone forced the city to yield, although certain concessions were made to leading families such as the Colonna and to the citizens themselves. Azzone took control over the Castel Sant'Angelo and wrested from Boniface permission to marry Joanna of Naples, on the condition that he would not unite Spoleto and Naples if the couple inherited the throne. If the fourteen year old Ladislaus died without issue, Joanna and her husband would succeed to the throne of Naples, and inherit claims to Provence, Hungary and Jerusalem. The savvy Boniface recognized that the match would potentially drive a wedge between Azzone and his father by forcing him to commit fully against the French, as Louis II of Anjou had invaded Naples in 1390 with the blessing of Pope Clement; the Anjou were now conspiring with the Duke of Orleans and agitating for a French invasion of Italy.

Gian Galeazzo did not formally acknowledge Urban or even accept his son's enfeoffment as Duke of Spoleto, a diplomatic distancing which forestalled an open breach with Avignon. In 1390 Azzone pledged to undertake a Crusade, partially as an act of penance for the violence of his reconquest of Rome, and partially to appease Pope Boniface, who viewed the endeavor as a propaganda victory against the Avignon Pope Clement. Boniface allowed Azzone to levy new taxes and indulgences to finance the war against the Turks. These funds were partially diverted to supporting Azzone's brother in law, Ladislaus of Naples, against the Angevins, and Azzone additionally made preparations alongside his brother Gian Maria to subjugate Florence, which had offered itself as a vassal to the King of France and beseeched him to invade Italy and free them from the tyrant.

Azzone's coup and the renewed war in Tuscany, in the long term, was destined to revolutionize European politics, but its immediate effects were limited mainly to Italy. Gian Galeazzo himself took a conciliatory tone, accepting the mediation of Emperor Ladislaus and the prospect of a negotiated peace between himself and Florence, which came to nothing; neither the French nor the Germans could intervene, and the lord of Milan played for time, intent on starving the great city into submission. Gian Galeazzo found himself in a delicate position. Florence, humiliated and crippled as she was, was not yet defeated; the French had voiced their displeasure on his aggression, and pressed him to recall Azzone and Carlo Maria, or at least pressure his sons into supporting the Clementine conquest of Latium. Louis of Orleans was even now contemplating an invasion of Italy to forcibly install Clement, and he was the fiercest advocate for accepting the Florentine offer and liberating Tuscany from the Milanese tyrant. Judging by recent history, this ill conceived venture was not likely to secure many lasting gains for France: Louis I of Anjou had died in Naples four years prior, as his army of forty thousand melted away due to disease and lack of payment; and Enguerrand de Coucy, the famed French knight, had conquered and occupied Arezzo in 1384 only to sell it to the Florentines after Anjou's death. Nevertheless Louis was determined to make his mark on Italy, and assert his rights over the Romagna, and he believed the Visconti's expansion in Italy to be merely a stepping stone towards his own glory.

Louis proposed an army of twelve thousand, financed by a special levy by Clement; he was to receive the Kingdom of Adria in the Romagna. He was prepared to offer Gian Galeazzo investiture as the King of Lombardy in return for stepping aside and allowing the French into Italy. Upon hearing of Azzone's coup, Louis immediately assumed, not entirely without reason, that his cousin had conquered the city on his behalf; Gian Galeazzo readily encouraged this belief, for he was not willing to break completely with France, nor to disavow his son. Yet Louis greatly misunderstood Italian politics- Gian Galeazzo would never declare himself for Clement without a French army in Italy; his subjects were loyal to Rome, and he had no desire to choose one Pope over the other while the option still remained to curry favor with both sides. The Duke of Burgundy entered into Italy on October 1390 as an envoy, sounding out the possibility of a combined offensive against the Roman Pope.

Gian Galeazzo had a strong hand, and played it well in negotiations, since he had maintained a scrupulous neutrality in the Schism. Pope Clement and Louis of Orleans concocted a general scheme to partition central Italy: Louis would become King of Adria, occupying the Romagna, and Clement pledged to enter into Rome at the head of a French army and end the Schism by force. Gian Galeazzo was offered the crown of Lombardy, undisputed control over Tuscany and Friuli, and confirmation of his son Azzone's investiture as Duke of Spoleto as a papal vassal.

Nevertheless the deal, which Gian Galeazzo had encouraged, was wholly beyond France's means and ultimately contrary to his own interests. In the first place, Rome was not his to give, as Azzone had placated the city only through his nominal submission to Pope Boniface. Nor did it suit his interests to cede Bologna to Louis, certainly not when he gained nothing from the venture which he did not already possess; and neither the French King Charles nor Pope Clement could bestow upon him the Iron Crown of Lombardy, which was an imperial possession. Boniface had already acknowledged his son's claim to Tuscany; Gian Galeazzo did not need Clement or the French to take it, and on the contrary wished to keep them out of the peninsula entirely, as a French intervention was one of the only serious obstacles yet remaining to his hegemony. The issue of Sicily- which Gian Galeazzo demanded, along with Sardinia and Corsica- destroyed the negotiations, as Gian Galeazzo intended and anticipated it would; Clement bestowing the title on the Visconti would potentially mean war between France and Aragon. Clement could not countenance this, as King John was solidly Francophile and loyal to Avignon. Louis did not have the resources to pay for the endeavor on his own, and with the English dragging their feet vis a vis peace talks the whole affair ultimately came to nothing- beyond diffusing the threat of a French alliance with Florence, which in the final analysis was the sole purpose of the negotiations in the first place; Gian Galeazzo's own envoys had alerted the English to the planned French invasion of Italy, prompting them to voice their displeasure during peace talks with the French. In 1392, Gian Galeazzo and Charles of France exchanged mutual declarations of friendship, which in practice bound the French to nothing, but the lord of Milan hoped, at least, that Charles would remember his oath and resist future appeals from the Florentines.

While the French negotiations deliberately stalled, Gian Galeazzo appealed personally to the Count of Armagnac, whom he had been courting since 1387. His sister had married Carlo Visconti, Gian Galeazzo's nephew, causing the Armagnac to react poorly to Bernabo's deposition and Carlo's demise. John himself had mustered an army against the King of Aragon throughout 1387, 1388 and 1389, intent on invading and conquering the Kingdom of Mallorca. This was wholly against both the interests of the French king and the Avignon papacy, and the younger Gian Galeazzo interceded on behalf of Charles, ostensibly as a gesture of good faith. The Duke, his father, hoped to turn the Count from an enemy to an ally, and had instructed his son accordingly. In April 1387, as the Count was assembling an army to attack King John of Aragon, the Count of Virtu's twenty one year old son Gian Galeazzo arrived in Avignon with fifty thousand florins worth of gifts. He swayed Pope Clement to intercede as an envoy, plying Armagnac with the offer of a betrothal between Carlo Maria Visconti to the count's daughter Joan and an anti-Aragonese alliance; the Visconti heir coyly suggested that Armagnac and his army accompany the Dukes of Orleans and Burgundy into Lombardy as an emissary of France. This flattered the Count, as the lord of Milan knew it would, for it implied that he viewed him as an equal to the French princes of the blood. In vain Carlo's widow argued strenuously to keep her brother from accepting the offer, denouncing Gian Galeazzo as a murderer, and insisting that the meeting was a trap. This the count of Vertu's emissary countered inexorably: that the Duke had sent his own son and heir as an envoy as a gesture of good faith; that Bernabo was a tyrant feared throughout Italy, who had forced his nephew into an incestuous marriage and schemed to steal his principality; that Bernabo had accosted the Count while he was on pilgrimage, and been overpowered by the Count's bodyguards in self defense; that the King of France and Pope of Avignon both demanded that the Visconti and Armagnac reconcile; that the Count was prepared to make restitution, and to pay the fees of the Armagnac army in Italy; that Armagnac would have safe conduct guaranteed by the King of France and the Pope in Avignon, and the protection of his own army; and that the Duke's cause was clearly favored by God, as demonstrated by his rapid victory over Carrara and seizure of Bologna, and therefore he could not be the vile and treacherous villain his enemies claimed him to be. The final argument proved decisive, for Armagnac had to contend with Carrara's rapid and humiliating eviction from Italy and his son's control over Latium. Moreover, Gian Galeazzo, unlike Pope Clement or King Charles of France, was prepared to fully acknowledge and support his spurious claims to Mallorca; and unlike the French or the Florentines he was able to pay hard cash for Armagnac's army. This was irresistible for the Count, who had been forced to delay his campaign for two years due to lack of funds, and he agreed to reroute his unruly army of more than six thousand Gascon routiers into Italy to discuss terms of employment with Milan against Florence.[4]

The Count of Armagnac entered into Pavia in August 1389 and thereafter fell into the sway of Gian Galeazzo. The Lord of Pavia spared no expense in courting the French patriarch, and- charming as ever- quickly won over the count with flattering and empathetic manner. Armagnac agreed to marry his widowed sister Beatrice to Gian Galeazzo's bastard son Gabriele Maria, the couple receiving the lordship of Vicenza from the Visconti and Charolais from the Armagnac; Gian Galeazzo secretly pledged to subsidize the Armagnac army in a joint campaign against the King of Aragon, to be conducted at an unspecified date in the future once Florence had fallen. In the interim he mediated a peace between the Catalans and John of Armagnac on behalf of King Charles of France, garnering much goodwill in both courts and ostensibly ensuring their benevolent neutrality in the affairs of Northern Italy. Pope Boniface IX- ever a canny politician- agreed to sanction the alliance, hinting at a crusade against the schismatic kings of Sicily in return for the cession of Bologna; as with Clement, Gian Galeazzo offered vague notions in support without openly committing to anything. Nevertheless he did gain a levy of taxes on church offices, and the sale of indulgences to finance the war with Florence. Pisa had overthrown its pro-Florentine government that year, cementing Gian Galeazzo's influence in Tuscany, and his control over the Tyrhennian Sea and Arno Valley. More substantially, the Doge Antoniotto Adorno of Genoa was his client and ally. Gian Galeazzo interceded on his “friend's” behalf, crushing popular revolt in Genoa against the Doge in 1390, after which the city accepted a Milanese garrison. Malcontented Ghibellines within the city had subsequently offered its submission to the French, and Gian Galeazzo's occupation caused Charles to complain vociferously, but continued tensions with England prevented the French from intervening directly, and the personal intervention of Isabella was enough to dissuade Charles from breaking off relations entirely. Nevertheless, Louis of Orleans and Louis of Anjou independently decided to launch an invasion, sponsored by the Avignon Pope, to conquer the Romagna; this was deeply distressing to Charles, not least once the English threatened to renew the war if France forcibly toppled the Roman Pope, but neither Louis nor Anjou were dissuaded, for on August 6, 1391, the fifteen year old Ladislaus died without issue, leaving the throne of Naples to his sister Joanna, wife of Azzone Visconti. Later examination confirmed that he was poisoned; it is harder to determine the culprit, since so many men stood to profit from Ladislaus' demise. The most obvious culprit would have been the French Valois-Anjou, but the Visconti were also accused, and even King John of Aragon, a rival for control over Sicily.

Gian Galeazzo had by this time proposed and organized a general League at Mantua, encompassing Milan and its allies, whose members pledged to resist a foreign invasion of Italy, mediate disputes among themselves, and support a peaceful resolution to the Schism; this in practice was understood to be a safeguard against the French and the Avignon Papacy. Mantua and Ferrara joined, as much from fear in the former case as fondness for Gian Galeazzo, and Venice reluctantly joined as well, for fear of losing all influence in Padania; Pope Urban, bowing before the political winds, joined the alliance and immediately began scheming to turn it fully against Avignon; Siena, Pisa and Genoa were induced to join as well. The alliance was also expanded to include the Kingdom of Naples, the Judiciate of Arborea, and the Piedmontese principalities of Saluzzo and Montferrat, who wished to protect themselves from the Savoy; these last admissions were to prove a serious mistake. Gian Galeazzo had hoped to balance affairs in Piedmont and preserve the status quo, but he was unwilling to turn away the minor principalities, perhaps believing that the Savoy were unlikely to act on their own. By admitting his son-in-law Ladislaus of Naples and the Arboreans, he was declaring himself fully against both the Valois-Anjou and the Barcelona of Aragon. He overestimated England's capacity for war, and underestimated the ambition of young Louis of Orleans, and did not foresee the danger his ambitions were creating.


[1]Here is the first major divergence in the course of the war. Historically Padua fell to a surprise attack by Carrara- the city threw open its gates, and the garrison was besieged in its fortress, eventually forced to surrender after the Bavarians prevented Milan from reinforcing. This forced Milan to break the siege of Bologna and opened an eastern front. Here, Azzone's leadership is able to maintain control of the city, preserving it from capture. Bologna is thus taken, and Carrara thereafter hounded from the peninsula.

[2]Ferrara started the war as a Milanese ally, but was forced to sign a separate peace after Polesine was sacked by the Bavarians. Here Carrara fails to take Padua, so Ferrara remains in the war on Milan's side.

[3]OTL Carrara's capture of Padua sorely stressed Milan's resources- he faced invasion from three sides- Bavaria, Padua to the east, an Armagnac army in support of his cousin (who hoped to reclaim Milan) in the west, and the Florentines to the south. He defeated the Armagnac and held out long enough to force a white peace with the loss of Padua, but at great expense, and a deterioration of his strategic position- here, the war has ended much sooner, he retains Padua and captures Bologna, while keeping his influence over Ferrara, Mantua, and the Romagna, on top of a fairly capable adult heir and a good decade or two to consolidate further. Thus he has a much better position TTL to continue expanding and consolidating northern Italy.

[4]Historically, the Count of Armagnac entered into Italy as an ally of Florence against Milan, and was killed after his army was destroyed. The Milanese TTL are far more formidable and the Count's Visconti brother-in-law is Gian Galeazzo's prisoner, and the intercession of Isabella and Gian Galeazzo II are enough to sway the Count into contemplating a different course of action.
 
Oh dear, here's hoping the Milanese didn't bite off more that they can chew. And Azzone seems pretty capable, perhaps too much for his own good.
 
The Shadow Kingdom

Now that he had hegemony over Padania, the Duke of Milan turned his attention, somewhat reticently, to the south. Bologna and Genoa were the two lodestars of Lombard revanchist ambition- the gateways to the Tyhrennian and the Romagna, respectively- and the latter city especially seemed ripe for conquest. Yet the Bolognese, leveraging their strategic position, had the ear of the major powers of the peninsula- Venice, the Papacy, and the Republic of Florence; Milan could not attack them without offending the other Italian powers, and perhaps triggering a hostile coalition. It was the Florentines who would prove most hostile to the Visconti.

Gian Galeazzo had mediated a peace between Bernabo and the Tuscan cities of Siena and Florence in , and these ties allowed him to curry favor in Siena especially. Siena had fallen on hard times; her silk industries were declining along with her plague-ridden population, and Florentine encroachment on her hinterland placed the city in dangerously precarious position. She had lost the rich val de Chiesa to resentment of the population, and feared interference in the similarly restive commune of Montepulciano.

Florentine aggression paved the way for Milan's entry into Tuscany. For all that contemporary Florentine diplomats denounced the Count as a tyrant and a warmonger, their neighbors recognized the howling of the wolves, and preferred the distant yet firm arm of the Visconti. Pope Urban returned to Tuscany from Genoa in 138, and Florence reopened talks with the Duke of Milan for a possible alliance against the Papacy; these were welcomed but ignored. The duke- pressured by his sons- had resolved on war, and was determined to seize Bologna in a fait accompli. Siena's offer of homage was politely refused, but she welcomed Milanese troops and entered into alliance with the duke, joining the League; Siena was followed by Perugia, Urbino, and the Ravennese Malatesta, a league now clearly arrayed against Florence. Florence herself secured the allegiance of Faenza, Imola, and Bologna in the Romagna, and maintained support for the Pro-Florentine party in Pisa via the ; yet that city had not forgotten her traditional hostility to Florence, and there were murmurings of discontent among the Pisan Ghibellines. Gian Galeazzo held his finger to the pulse of Tuscany, and could name all the malcontents by name; he was in contact with the of Pisa and many others. Behind every corner the Florentines perceived the viscontigiani working to encircle and destroy them- but the net was of their own making, and their struggles only tightened the noose.

Both sides resorted to the pen before the sword; Milan spoke of resisting the Guelph tyrants, the Florenbtines rose the banner of republican liberty against the tyrant, but beneath the haughty rhetoric was the nakedly brutal logic of secular interests. Florence wished to expand into Tuscany; the great merchant families had staked their fortunes on securing regional dominance, and were not prepared to allow a foreign power such as the Milanese to interfere within their spheres of influence. Milan took up the challenge, and asserted her right to protect the weaker states against the stronger. The Florentines, together with Bologna, demanded a border along the Territory of Modena and the river Secchia as the dividing line between their respective spheres of influence. Pietro Gambacorta, the pro-Florentine lord of Pisa, attempted in vain to mediate personally with the Duke, but failed, for Gian Galeazzo was now resolved on war.

As the crisis boiled over, the Duke installed his second son Azzone in Verona, a youth destined for glory.[1] Nineteen years old in 1388 and as yet unmarried, he had inherited his father's fair complexion and fiery mane, and a keen and industrious intellect well suited to soldiery. Like his parents he was personally vivacious and charming- but whereas his father was the consummate statesman and a reserved, pensive scholar, and his mother a gregarious and generous soul, Azzone embodied the ideal Medieval warrior prince: audacious, gregarious, reveling in the opulent majesty of Pavia's Renaissance court, which surrounded him as snugly as fur on a hound. His status- unwed and unbetrothed- was in part perhaps lingering regret over his sister Valentina's marriage, in part the prince's own diffident nature- for unlike his father he readily enjoyed the company of women, siring twenty eight known bastards with at least a dozen mistresses and paramours over his tumultuous life- and as Italy did not disfavor bastards, these sons and his brothers' own marriages ensured that the Visconti line was likely to continue with or without his marriage. Azzone demonstrated- in striking contrast to his father- a ready aptitude for the military, combining an easy charisma and belligerent bravery with a keen, workmanlike mind well suited to the mundane oversight of both armies and government administration. His appointment to Friuli was a clear endorsement by his father- for Gian Galeazzo was sensitive to the danger from the east, and would not have entrusted the task to Azzone if he thought him incapable.

Azzone's appointment was well justified: on 1389, Francesco Carrara, the exiled lord of Padua and Verona, crossed through Austrian Carinthia into Friuli with two thousand infantry and the backing of Duke Stephen of Bavaria, attacking Padua while the Lombards were preoccupied in the Romagna. Prince Azzone rebuffed the invasion- his scouts detected Carrara's force and his soldiers maintained the walls against them; his army was able to crush an abortive rebellion within the city and maintain control of the gates. Carrara was forced to commit to a siege; correspondingly, Gian Galeazzo's general Ubaldini decided to continue with his own attack on Bologna, trusting the prince to hold out. The city, despairing of relief, appealed to Rome for aid; a papal ambassador attempted to intercede and take control of Bologna, but the Milanese stalled for time and barred his passing, preventing the Papal banner from being formally raised over their enemy's walls. Bolognese dissidents had been in secret contact with the Visconti and proposed to dedicate their city to Milan. As the siege dragged on Ubaldini himself had opened his own negotations with the dissidents, and they finally succeeded in opening the gate. Bologna, like Verona and Padua, admitted the duke's forces after an urban revolt cast out the lord.[1] Once Bologna had fallen, Ubaldini rushed north towards Padua, which still held out for the Visconti, meeting and routing the Bavarians near Verona before they could join with the Carrarese. Carrara, upon learning of the defeat, became terrified that his mercenaries would betray him; in the night, he fled with his treasury and his closest compatriots across the Alps into Germany, whereupon he became a guest of Duke Stephen of Bavaria Landshut. Stephen's entry into Italy had been delayed by the opposition of Duke John of Bavaria, who agreed to send three hundred knights south to aid his son in law, placing himself directly in opposition to his brothers Stephen and Albert. This delay, and the broader failure of Gian Galeazzo's enemies to combine effectively against him, proved fatal to the coalition.

Further south, the Florentines were under an increasingly effective blockade- although pressing Siena hard, they were nearly surrounded by Gian Galeazzo's allies- Ferrara[2], Siena, Perugia, Genoa, Urbino and the Malatesta of Rimini. Lucca, tentatively neutral and independent, was induced to sever ties with Florence by the arrival of Lombard soldiers in Massa. The Romagnan princes divided amongst themselves and used the war to settle old grudges between themselves. Azzone was granted command for a campaign into the Romagna to sever Florence's link to the Adriatic. On January 9th, 1389, Azzone's army appeared suddenly outside Imola and triggered a revolt against the Papal legate Luigi Alidosi; thereafter allying with the Ordelaffi of Forli, he assaulted Faenza on the 4th of February, taking and sacking the city; although wounded in the fighting he intervened to protect the city's church, where the bishop and several dozen civilians had taken refuge. For this the citizens would gratefully name him Azzone the Magnanimous.

With Romagna supine, Gian Galeazzo negotiated a new League at Pavia, whereby his allies- Genoa, Siena, Lucca, Ferrara, Mantua, Urbino- pledged to maintain peace between themselves- and tacitly agreed to separate themselves from the Florentines.[3] Florence found itself totally isolated in Italy, a ripe plum the Visconti vipers were determined to take for themselves, and in their desperation they appealed to the French, offering- as the Genoese had done once before- to submit their republic to Charles VI in return for his support against Milan. This act of desperation was to prove the republic's undoing. France was too far away and too preoccupied to offer immediate aid, while Pope Urban excommunicated them, and Pisa was induced to revolt against its pro-Florentine despot. The city was forced to sue for peace, which was mediated by the Venetians; all recognized it as terms of surrender. Florence was forced to return the disputed territory to Milan, and join a League led by the Milanese, pledging to maintain the peace of Italy by banning the condotierri companies from the peninsula and averting alliances or conspiracies against fellow members; in return the Milanese and their allies agreed to abandon the blockade. As Milan had a much larger army than Florence, banning mercenaries decisively shifted the balance against the republic, and so long as she was unable to enter into foreign alliances the Florentines would be isolated and easily destroyed in a future war.

For the moment the French did not intercede against Gian Galeazzo; France was preoccupied with the tenuous negotiations with the English at Leulingham, and Isabella was able to personally intercede on behalf of her husband. But events in Rome would precipitate a general crisis in Franco-Lombard relations. The decrepit Urban died, unmourned, in October 1389; Azzone at the time was wintering his army in Perugia. At once he perceived the opportunity, and seized it on his own initiative without consulting with or informing his father. He and sixty heavily armed companions rode south and surprised the lax Romans, who were not prepared for an attack, and many of its watchmen were caught gambling or carousing on duty; the caput mundi, seat of Latin Christianity, passed into Visconti control due to the licentiousness of its defenders. Rome itself had fallen far, its ancient Aurelian Walls enclosing a squalid city of ten thousand souls, barely a tenth the size of great metropolises like Naples or Florence and far removed from the half million who had inhabited it during the Empire's peak during Late Antiquity. Much of the city's land had been given over to farms and pasture, and both plague and the long absence of the Papal court had robbed the city of its vitality; barely three decades prior, the city had overthrown papal government entirely for a few scant months, reasserting the ancient communal self government. It was to these malcontents that Azzone turned, but he overreached himself with his ambition. He broke apart the Papal Conclave, blocking the ascension of the capable Neapolitan , and took the government of the city into his own hands. Whether he ultimately intended to deliver up the city to Clement as some of his enemies alleged or merely assert control over Rome in the manner of Cola di Rienzo was not clear, but his aggression against the Cardinals was enough to trigger an insurrection within the city. Besieged in the Castel Sant'Angelo, the rest of his army menacing the city from beyond the Aurelian walls, Azzone- never one to equivocate in times of crisis- cast aside his earlier misgivings and arranged a hasty papal coronation. He presented Pope Boniface to the crowd, and declared himself willing “to defend the city to his last breath” against the French and all other foreigners; the pope in turn ceded to him all Papal rights to the Margrave of Tuscany, and tasked Azzone with clearing out the Clementine Orsini, lord of Spoleto and Orvieto, sole lord of the Papal Patrimony to maintain loyalty to Avignon.

Azzone, playing the dutiful servant, thereafter turned his father's men against the Orsini, spending the following Spring of 1390 conquering his duchy. Having evicted the Orsini he refused to surrender Spoleto to a papal governor, instead seizing control of the city and additionally occupying Perugia without resistance. Boniface's governor found the gates of Spoleto closed against him; the city recalled their loyalty to Avignon and contempt for Rome's authority, and haughtily professed that they would again seek Avignon's protection if Boniface deposed their new prince. The Pope yielded, and agreed to invest Azzone as Duke of Spoleto, although he was obliged to renounce, for himself and his heirs, all claims on his father's dominions in Lombardy, and additionally to return Orvieto, which was too close to Rome for Boniface to allow it to remain in the hands of his vassal. Azzone immediately sold his rights to Tuscany to his brother Carlo Maria, and turned east, asserting his rule over the Adriatic littoral of the Papacy. He attacked Ancona alongside the Venetians in 1391, but a storm scattered their fleet, and with finances and supplies running low he agreed to withdraw in exchange for a tribute of 70,000 florins. Fermo yielded to him, as did , and by the end of 1392 he was in control of nearly all of Umbria and the Marche. In the span of two short years Azzone Visconti had become the master of much of Central Italy.

Pope Boniface was never comfortable with the ambitious and energetic viper to his east; but recognizing the weakness of his own position, he was not yet prepared to disown him. The interdependence of the two men was emphasized after another revolt in 1391 forced the Pope to flee to Perugia, placing himself at the Duke's mercy. Azzone returned with an army, and forced entry into the city, bloodily suppressing the mob. The Romans had grown accustomed to the lax hand of self government and resented Boniface's attempts at enforcing new taxation and centralized control; Azzone forced the city to yield, although certain concessions were made to leading families such as the Colonna and to the citizens themselves. Azzone took control over the Castel Sant'Angelo and wrested from Boniface permission to marry Joanna of Naples, on the condition that he would not unite Spoleto and Naples if the couple inherited the throne. If the fourteen year old Ladislaus died without issue, Joanna and her husband would succeed to the throne of Naples, and inherit claims to Provence, Hungary and Jerusalem. The savvy Boniface recognized that the match would potentially drive a wedge between Azzone and his father by forcing him to commit fully against the French, as Louis II of Anjou had invaded Naples in 1390 with the blessing of Pope Clement; the Anjou were now conspiring with the Duke of Orleans and agitating for a French invasion of Italy.

Gian Galeazzo did not formally acknowledge Urban or even accept his son's enfeoffment as Duke of Spoleto, a diplomatic distancing which forestalled an open breach with Avignon. In 1390 Azzone pledged to undertake a Crusade, partially as an act of penance for the violence of his reconquest of Rome, and partially to appease Pope Boniface, who viewed the endeavor as a propaganda victory against the Avignon Pope Clement. Boniface allowed Azzone to levy new taxes and indulgences to finance the war against the Turks. These funds were partially diverted to supporting Azzone's brother in law, Ladislaus of Naples, against the Angevins, and Azzone additionally made preparations alongside his brother Gian Maria to subjugate Florence, which had offered itself as a vassal to the King of France and beseeched him to invade Italy and free them from the tyrant.

Azzone's coup and the renewed war in Tuscany, in the long term, was destined to revolutionize European politics, but its immediate effects were limited mainly to Italy. Gian Galeazzo himself took a conciliatory tone, accepting the mediation of Emperor Ladislaus and the prospect of a negotiated peace between himself and Florence, which came to nothing; neither the French nor the Germans could intervene, and the lord of Milan played for time, intent on starving the great city into submission. Gian Galeazzo found himself in a delicate position. Florence, humiliated and crippled as she was, was not yet defeated; the French had voiced their displeasure on his aggression, and pressed him to recall Azzone and Carlo Maria, or at least pressure his sons into supporting the Clementine conquest of Latium. Louis of Orleans was even now contemplating an invasion of Italy to forcibly install Clement, and he was the fiercest advocate for accepting the Florentine offer and liberating Tuscany from the Milanese tyrant. Judging by recent history, this ill conceived venture was not likely to secure many lasting gains for France: Louis I of Anjou had died in Naples four years prior, as his army of forty thousand melted away due to disease and lack of payment; and Enguerrand de Coucy, the famed French knight, had conquered and occupied Arezzo in 1384 only to sell it to the Florentines after Anjou's death. Nevertheless Louis was determined to make his mark on Italy, and assert his rights over the Romagna, and he believed the Visconti's expansion in Italy to be merely a stepping stone towards his own glory.

Louis proposed an army of twelve thousand, financed by a special levy by Clement; he was to receive the Kingdom of Adria in the Romagna. He was prepared to offer Gian Galeazzo investiture as the King of Lombardy in return for stepping aside and allowing the French into Italy. Upon hearing of Azzone's coup, Louis immediately assumed, not entirely without reason, that his cousin had conquered the city on his behalf; Gian Galeazzo readily encouraged this belief, for he was not willing to break completely with France, nor to disavow his son. Yet Louis greatly misunderstood Italian politics- Gian Galeazzo would never declare himself for Clement without a French army in Italy; his subjects were loyal to Rome, and he had no desire to choose one Pope over the other while the option still remained to curry favor with both sides. The Duke of Burgundy entered into Italy on October 1390 as an envoy, sounding out the possibility of a combined offensive against the Roman Pope.

Gian Galeazzo had a strong hand, and played it well in negotiations, since he had maintained a scrupulous neutrality in the Schism. Pope Clement and Louis of Orleans concocted a general scheme to partition central Italy: Louis would become King of Adria, occupying the Romagna, and Clement pledged to enter into Rome at the head of a French army and end the Schism by force. Gian Galeazzo was offered the crown of Lombardy, undisputed control over Tuscany and Friuli, and confirmation of his son Azzone's investiture as Duke of Spoleto as a papal vassal.

Nevertheless the deal, which Gian Galeazzo had encouraged, was wholly beyond France's means and ultimately contrary to his own interests. In the first place, Rome was not his to give, as Azzone had placated the city only through his nominal submission to Pope Boniface. Nor did it suit his interests to cede Bologna to Louis, certainly not when he gained nothing from the venture which he did not already possess; and neither the French King Charles nor Pope Clement could bestow upon him the Iron Crown of Lombardy, which was an imperial possession. Boniface had already acknowledged his son's claim to Tuscany; Gian Galeazzo did not need Clement or the French to take it, and on the contrary wished to keep them out of the peninsula entirely, as a French intervention was one of the only serious obstacles yet remaining to his hegemony. The issue of Sicily- which Gian Galeazzo demanded, along with Sardinia and Corsica- destroyed the negotiations, as Gian Galeazzo intended and anticipated it would; Clement bestowing the title on the Visconti would potentially mean war between France and Aragon. Clement could not countenance this, as King John was solidly Francophile and loyal to Avignon. Louis did not have the resources to pay for the endeavor on his own, and with the English dragging their feet vis a vis peace talks the whole affair ultimately came to nothing- beyond diffusing the threat of a French alliance with Florence, which in the final analysis was the sole purpose of the negotiations in the first place; Gian Galeazzo's own envoys had alerted the English to the planned French invasion of Italy, prompting them to voice their displeasure during peace talks with the French. In 1392, Gian Galeazzo and Charles of France exchanged mutual declarations of friendship, which in practice bound the French to nothing, but the lord of Milan hoped, at least, that Charles would remember his oath and resist future appeals from the Florentines.

While the French negotiations deliberately stalled, Gian Galeazzo appealed personally to the Count of Armagnac, whom he had been courting since 1387. His sister had married Carlo Visconti, Gian Galeazzo's nephew, causing the Armagnac to react poorly to Bernabo's deposition and Carlo's demise. John himself had mustered an army against the King of Aragon throughout 1387, 1388 and 1389, intent on invading and conquering the Kingdom of Mallorca. This was wholly against both the interests of the French king and the Avignon papacy, and the younger Gian Galeazzo interceded on behalf of Charles, ostensibly as a gesture of good faith. The Duke, his father, hoped to turn the Count from an enemy to an ally, and had instructed his son accordingly. In April 1387, as the Count was assembling an army to attack King John of Aragon, the Count of Virtu's twenty one year old son Gian Galeazzo arrived in Avignon with fifty thousand florins worth of gifts. He swayed Pope Clement to intercede as an envoy, plying Armagnac with the offer of a betrothal between Carlo Maria Visconti to the count's daughter Joan and an anti-Aragonese alliance; the Visconti heir coyly suggested that Armagnac and his army accompany the Dukes of Orleans and Burgundy into Lombardy as an emissary of France. This flattered the Count, as the lord of Milan knew it would, for it implied that he viewed him as an equal to the French princes of the blood. In vain Carlo's widow argued strenuously to keep her brother from accepting the offer, denouncing Gian Galeazzo as a murderer, and insisting that the meeting was a trap. This the count of Vertu's emissary countered inexorably: that the Duke had sent his own son and heir as an envoy as a gesture of good faith; that Bernabo was a tyrant feared throughout Italy, who had forced his nephew into an incestuous marriage and schemed to steal his principality; that Bernabo had accosted the Count while he was on pilgrimage, and been overpowered by the Count's bodyguards in self defense; that the King of France and Pope of Avignon both demanded that the Visconti and Armagnac reconcile; that the Count was prepared to make restitution, and to pay the fees of the Armagnac army in Italy; that Armagnac would have safe conduct guaranteed by the King of France and the Pope in Avignon, and the protection of his own army; and that the Duke's cause was clearly favored by God, as demonstrated by his rapid victory over Carrara and seizure of Bologna, and therefore he could not be the vile and treacherous villain his enemies claimed him to be. The final argument proved decisive, for Armagnac had to contend with Carrara's rapid and humiliating eviction from Italy and his son's control over Latium. Moreover, Gian Galeazzo, unlike Pope Clement or King Charles of France, was prepared to fully acknowledge and support his spurious claims to Mallorca; and unlike the French or the Florentines he was able to pay hard cash for Armagnac's army. This was irresistible for the Count, who had been forced to delay his campaign for two years due to lack of funds, and he agreed to reroute his unruly army of more than six thousand Gascon routiers into Italy to discuss terms of employment with Milan against Florence.[4]

The Count of Armagnac entered into Pavia in August 1389 and thereafter fell into the sway of Gian Galeazzo. The Lord of Pavia spared no expense in courting the French patriarch, and- charming as ever- quickly won over the count with flattering and empathetic manner. Armagnac agreed to marry his widowed sister Beatrice to Gian Galeazzo's bastard son Gabriele Maria, the couple receiving the lordship of Vicenza from the Visconti and Charolais from the Armagnac; Gian Galeazzo secretly pledged to subsidize the Armagnac army in a joint campaign against the King of Aragon, to be conducted at an unspecified date in the future once Florence had fallen. In the interim he mediated a peace between the Catalans and John of Armagnac on behalf of King Charles of France, garnering much goodwill in both courts and ostensibly ensuring their benevolent neutrality in the affairs of Northern Italy. Pope Boniface IX- ever a canny politician- agreed to sanction the alliance, hinting at a crusade against the schismatic kings of Sicily in return for the cession of Bologna; as with Clement, Gian Galeazzo offered vague notions in support without openly committing to anything. Nevertheless he did gain a levy of taxes on church offices, and the sale of indulgences to finance the war with Florence. Pisa had overthrown its pro-Florentine government that year, cementing Gian Galeazzo's influence in Tuscany, and his control over the Tyrhennian Sea and Arno Valley. More substantially, the Doge Antoniotto Adorno of Genoa was his client and ally. Gian Galeazzo interceded on his “friend's” behalf, crushing popular revolt in Genoa against the Doge in 1390, after which the city accepted a Milanese garrison. Malcontented Ghibellines within the city had subsequently offered its submission to the French, and Gian Galeazzo's occupation caused Charles to complain vociferously, but continued tensions with England prevented the French from intervening directly, and the personal intervention of Isabella was enough to dissuade Charles from breaking off relations entirely. Nevertheless, Louis of Orleans and Louis of Anjou independently decided to launch an invasion, sponsored by the Avignon Pope, to conquer the Romagna; this was deeply distressing to Charles, not least once the English threatened to renew the war if France forcibly toppled the Roman Pope, but neither Louis nor Anjou were dissuaded, for on August 6, 1391, the fifteen year old Ladislaus died without issue, leaving the throne of Naples to his sister Joanna, wife of Azzone Visconti. Later examination confirmed that he was poisoned; it is harder to determine the culprit, since so many men stood to profit from Ladislaus' demise. The most obvious culprit would have been the French Valois-Anjou, but the Visconti were also accused, and even King John of Aragon, a rival for control over Sicily.

Gian Galeazzo had by this time proposed and organized a general League at Mantua, encompassing Milan and its allies, whose members pledged to resist a foreign invasion of Italy, mediate disputes among themselves, and support a peaceful resolution to the Schism; this in practice was understood to be a safeguard against the French and the Avignon Papacy. Mantua and Ferrara joined, as much from fear in the former case as fondness for Gian Galeazzo, and Venice reluctantly joined as well, for fear of losing all influence in Padania; Pope Urban, bowing before the political winds, joined the alliance and immediately began scheming to turn it fully against Avignon; Siena, Pisa and Genoa were induced to join as well. The alliance was also expanded to include the Kingdom of Naples, the Judiciate of Arborea, and the Piedmontese principalities of Saluzzo and Montferrat, who wished to protect themselves from the Savoy; these last admissions were to prove a serious mistake. Gian Galeazzo had hoped to balance affairs in Piedmont and preserve the status quo, but he was unwilling to turn away the minor principalities, perhaps believing that the Savoy were unlikely to act on their own. By admitting his son-in-law Ladislaus of Naples and the Arboreans, he was declaring himself fully against both the Valois-Anjou and the Barcelona of Aragon. He overestimated England's capacity for war, and underestimated the ambition of young Louis of Orleans, and did not foresee the danger his ambitions were creating.


[1]Here is the first major divergence in the course of the war. Historically Padua fell to a surprise attack by Carrara- the city threw open its gates, and the garrison was besieged in its fortress, eventually forced to surrender after the Bavarians prevented Milan from reinforcing. This forced Milan to break the siege of Bologna and opened an eastern front. Here, Azzone's leadership is able to maintain control of the city, preserving it from capture. Bologna is thus taken, and Carrara thereafter hounded from the peninsula.

[2]Ferrara started the war as a Milanese ally, but was forced to sign a separate peace after Polesine was sacked by the Bavarians. Here Carrara fails to take Padua, so Ferrara remains in the war on Milan's side.

[3]OTL Carrara's capture of Padua sorely stressed Milan's resources- he faced invasion from three sides- Bavaria, Padua to the east, an Armagnac army in support of his cousin (who hoped to reclaim Milan) in the west, and the Florentines to the south. He defeated the Armagnac and held out long enough to force a white peace with the loss of Padua, but at great expense, and a deterioration of his strategic position- here, the war has ended much sooner, he retains Padua and captures Bologna, while keeping his influence over Ferrara, Mantua, and the Romagna, on top of a fairly capable adult heir and a good decade or two to consolidate further. Thus he has a much better position TTL to continue expanding and consolidating northern Italy.

[4]Historically, the Count of Armagnac entered into Italy as an ally of Florence against Milan, and was killed after his army was destroyed. The Milanese TTL are far more formidable and the Count's Visconti brother-in-law is Gian Galeazzo's prisoner, and the intercession of Isabella and Gian Galeazzo II are enough to sway the Count into contemplating a different course of action.
Well, the most obvious culprit of Ladislaus's poisoning would be Sigismund of Luxembourg as Ladislaus was rival claimant to Hungary.
 
I forgot about him lol.
Yeah, Ladislaus just wouldn't die, despite half of Europe (both popes!) having it out for him.
Oh yes, IOTL he was durable but here Naples would be embroiled in succesion war between Azzone and Joanna and Louis II of Anjou. Though at least it forces Boniface to side with Milanese consistently.
 
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