Bernab Visconti

Bernab or Barnab Visconti (1323 18 December through the mediation of King John II of France. How1385) was an Italian soldier and statesman, who was Lord ever, having Barnab neglected to return the papal city
of Milan.
of Bologna and to present himself at Avignon, on 4
March 1363 he was excommunicated once more,[1] together with his children, one of whom, Ambrogio, was
captured by the Papal commander Gil de Albornoz. With
1 Life
the peace signed on 13 March 1364, Visconti left the occupied Papal lands, in exchange for the raising of the ban
He was born in Milan, the son of Stefano Visconti and
upon a payment of 500,000 orins.
Valentina Doria. From 1346 to 1349 he lived in exile,
until he was called back by his uncle Giovanni Visconti. In spring 1368 Visconti allied with Cansignorio della
On 27 September 1350 Bernab married Beatrice Regina Scala of Verona, and attacked Mantua, still ruled by
della Scala, daughter of Mastino II, Lord of Verona and Ugolino Gonzaga. The situation was settled later in the
Taddea da Carrara, and forged both a political and cul- year through an agreement between him and emperor.
tural alliance between the two cities. His intrigues and Two years later he besieged Reggio, which he managed to
ambitions kept him at war almost continuously with Pope acquire from Gonzaga in 1371. The following war against
Urban V, the Florentines, Venice and Savoy. In 1354, at the Este of Modena and Ferrara raised again Papal enmity
the death of Giovanni, he inherited the power of Milan, against the Milanese, now on the part of Gregory XI. In
together with his brothers Matteo and Galeazzo. Bernab 1370, he ordered the construction of the Trezzo Bridge,
received the eastern lands (Bergamo, Brescia, Cremona then the largest single-arch bridge in the world.
and Crema), that bordered the Veronese territories. Mi- In 1373, the pope sent two papal delegates to serve Bernlan itself was to be ruled in turn by the three brothers. ab and Galeazzo their excommunication papers (consistThe vicious Matteo was murdered in 1355 at the order of ing of a parchment bearing a leaden seal rolled in a silken
his brothers, who divided his inheritance between them. cord). Bernab, infuriated, placed the two papal delegates under arrest and refused their release until they had
eaten the parchment, seal, and silken cord which they had
served him.[2] He managed to resist, despite also the outbreak of a plague in Milan, whose consequences he suppressed with frantic energy.[3] In 1378 he allied with the
Republic of Venice in its War of Chioggia against Genoa.
His troops were however defeated in September 1379 in
the Val Bisagno.
Bernab, whose despotism and taxes had enraged the Milanese he is featured among the exempla of tyrants as
victims of Fortune in Chaucer's[4] Monks Tale as god
of delit and scourge of Lumbardye was deposed by
his nephew Gian Galeazzo Visconti in 1385. Imprisoned
in the castle of Trezzo, he was poisoned in December of
that year.

Equestrian statue of Bernab Visconti in the Castello Sforzesco,

Milan.

In 1356, after having oended the emperor, he pushed

back a rst attack upon Milan by the imperial vicar
Markward von Randeck, imprisoning him. In 1360 he
was declared heretic by Innocent VI at Avignon and condemned by Emperor Charles IV. The ensuing conict
ended with a dismaying defeat at San Rullo against
the imperial troops under Galeotto I Malatesta (29 July
1361). In 1362, after the death of his sisters husband,
Ugolino Gonzaga, caused him to attack also Mantua.
Warring on several dierent fronts, in December of that
year he sued for peace with the new pope, Urban V,

The funerary monument of Bernab Visconti, with an

equestrian statue, together with that of his consort, had
been made beforehand, in 1363. The sculptures by
Bonino da Campione were intended for the church of
San Giovanni in Conca. They now stand in the Castello
Sforzesco in Milan.

CHILDREN

8. Caterina Visconti, Duchess of Milan (136117 October 1404), married on 2 October 1380 as his second wife, Gian Galeazzo Visconti 1st Duke of Milan, by whom she had two sons, Gian Maria Visconti, 2nd Duke of Milan; and Filippo Maria Visconti, 3rd Duke of Milan, who fathered Bianca
Maria Visconti by his mistress Agnese del Maino.
9. Agnese Visconti (13621391), married in 1380
Francesco I Gonzaga, by whom she had one daughter. Agnes was executed for alleged adultery.
10. Antonia Visconti (died 26 March 1405), married
Eberhard III, Count of Wurttemberg, by whom she
had three sons.
11. Mastino Visconti (died 1404), married Antonia
della Scala (died 1400), daughter of Cangrande II.

Bernab and his wife, Beatrice

Children

Bernab was an ally of Stephen II, Duke of Bavaria: three

of his daughters were married with Stephens descendants. He had 17 legitimate children with his wife:
1. Taddea Visconti, Duchess of Bavaria (135128
September 1381), married on 13 October 1364
Stephen III, Duke of Bavaria, by whom she had three
children including Isabeau of Bavaria, Queen consort of King Charles VI of France

12. Maddalena Visconti (1366 17 July 1404), married

Frederick, Duke of Bavaria, by whom she had ve
children including Henry XVI of Bavaria
13. Aymonette Visconti, married Louis I de Berton des
Balbes
14. Anglesia Visconti (died 12 October 1439), in
January 1400 married King Janus of Cyprus,
but the marriage was childless and was dissolved
1407/1409; he married in 1411 as his second wife,
Charlotte de Bourbon-La Marche by whom he had
six children.
15. Giammastino Visconti (1370 19 June 1405), married Cleofa della Scala (died 1403), by whom he had
three children. She was the daughter of Cangrande
II.

2. Viridis Visconti (13521414), married Leopold III,

Duke of Inner Austria, by whom she had six children.

16. Lucia Visconti (1372 14 April 1424), married

Edmund Holland, 4th Earl of Kent, the marriage
was childless.

3. Marco Visconti (November 13531382), married

Elisabeth of Bavaria

17. Elisabetta Visconti (1374 2 February 1432), married on 26 January 1395 Ernest, Duke of Bavaria,
by whom she had ve children including Albert III,
Duke of Bavaria.

4. Rodolfo Visconti, Lord of Parma (13581388)

5. Ludovico Visconti (13587 March 1404), married His illegitimate ospring by Donnina del Porri, legitiViolante Visconti, widow of Lionel of Antwerp. mated in a ceremony after the death of his wife in 1384,[5]
They had a son, Giovanni, who left descendants.
were as follows:
6. Carlo Visconti (September 1359August 1403),
married Beatrice of Armagnac, daughter of John
II, Count of Armagnac and Jeanne de Prigord, by
whom he had four children.
7. Valentina Visconti (13601393), married rstly in
1378, King Peter II of Cyprus, by whom she had
one daughter who died in early infancy; she married
secondly, Galeazzo, Count of Virt

Palamede (d. 1402).

Lancelloto.
Sovrana, married Giovanni da Prato.
Ginevra, married Leonardo Malaspina (d. 1441).
Enrica, married Franchino Rusca.

3
In addition, Bernab had other illegitimate ospring by
other mistresses:[6]
With Beltramola Grassi:
Ambrogio (1343 killed in battle Caprino Bergamasco, 17 August 1373), condottiero and Governor
of Pavia.
Isotta (d. 1388), married in 1378 to Count Lutz von
Landau, condottiero under the name of Lucio Land
(d. 1398).
Ettore (d. 1413), who briey took the Lordship of
Milan (16 May 12 June 1412), married Margherita
Infrascati.
Riccarda, married Bernard, Seigneur de La Salle (d.
1391).
With Montanina de Lazzari:
Sagramoro (d. 1385), Lord of Brignano, married
Achiletta Marliani.
Donnina (13601406), married in 1377 to Sir John
Hawkwood.
With Giovanolla Montebretto:
Bernarda (d. 1376), married Giovanni Suardi.
Valentia, married Antonio Gentile Visconti, Lord of
Belgioioso.

Bibliography
Pizzagalli, Daniela (1994). Bernab Visconti. Milan: Rusconi.

Footnotes

[1] George L. Williams, Papal Genealogy: The Families and

Descendants of the Popes, (McFarland and Company Inc.,
1998), 34.
[2] For this, see Irving Wallace, David Wallechinsky and
Amy Wallace, The Book of Lists 2(1980), Ealing, London,
Elm Tree, 1980 and Corgi, 1981. ISBN 0-552-11681-5 ;
p 147, although here it says the incident occurred in 1370.
[3] For his plague regulations for Milan, see Rosemary Horrox, The Black Death(1994) III.65, p 203.
[4] Chaucer had been sent to Lombardy in 1378 on behalf of
the young King Richard II to seek the support of Bernab
and Sir John Hawkwood on behalf of the English war effort against France. His epistola metrica III.29 was tacitly
addressed to Bernab (Ernest H. Wilkings, The 'Epistolae
Metricae' of Petrarch, (Edizioni di Storia e Letteratura), p.
11.

[5] " Bernab Visconti seems to have gone through some sort
of marriage ceremony to legitimate his children by Donnina del Porri (H.S. Ettlinger, Visibilis et Invisibilis:
The Mistress in Italian Renaissance Court Society, Renaissance Quarterly, 1994.
[6] Marek, Miroslav. Complete Genealogy of the House of
Visconti. Genealogy.EU.

5 External links
Biography (Italian)

6 TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES

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