(c. 1460) by
Bonifacio Bembo. Many pretenders claimed to be the rightful successor to Filippo Maria Visconti, who died without a male heir. These included the capable
condottiero Francesco Sforza (husband of
Visconti's illegitimate daughter),
King Alfonso V of Aragon and Naples (to whom Visconti had bequeathed the Duchy in his will) supported by the influential
Bracceschi family,
Duke Charles of Orléans (son of
Visconti's half-sister),
Duke Louis of Savoy (brother of
Visconti's widow),
archdukes Albert IV and
Sigismund of Austria (great-grandchildren of
Bernabò Visconti), and
Emperor Frederick III (who declared the Duchy should revert to the
Holy Roman Empire on the extinction of its male line of succession). However, the citizens of Milan and several Lombard towns loyal to Milan proclaimed the
Golden Ambrosian Republic (1447–1450) on 14 August 1447, which rejected any
hereditary succession. With Sforza as its military leader, the Republic managed to seize and control most of the Duchy of Milan's territory by mid-1448 in battles against rebelling cities such as
Pavia,
Lodi, and
Piacenza, and the invading
Republic of Venice (which had already been at war with Milan before Visconti's death). The initial phase of the war may thus be characterised more as a struggle between republics rather than between rival claimants to a throne. Nevertheless, in October 1448 Sforza defected to Venice in exchange for Venetian support for his claim as duke of Milan. Sforza quickly became a successful conquering warlord, whom the Venetians started to fear. Seeking to claim Milan for himself, the
Duke of Savoy interfered in support of the Ambrosian Republic in 1449, but they were defeated by the Sforzan–Venetian forces under
Bartolomeo Colleoni at the Battle of Borgomanero (22 April 1449). The Milanese War of Succession ended with the
Treaty of Lodi (9 April 1454), which recognised Sforza as the new duke of Milan (and established a balance of power in Italy, especially through the
Italic League formed in August 1454). The Holy Roman Emperor would not do so until 1494, when
Emperor Maximilian I formally invested Francesco's son,
Ludovico Sforza, as duke of Milan. == Battles ==