Visconti of Milan
The effective founder of the Visconti of Milan, Ottone, wrested control of the city from the rival Della Torre family in 1277.
The family loved to claim legendary versions about its origins (Fancy genealogies were en vogue at the time) while established facts reflect quite sober and almost humble beginnings. The branch of the Visconti family that came to rule Milan was originally entrusted with the lordship of Massino (nowadays Massino Visconti), a village above Lago Maggiore, which they controlled from the twelfth century.
It is said that the Milanese Visconti had their origins in a family of capitanei (cfr. the modern surname Cattaneo) whom archbishop Landulf of Milan (978–998) had granted certain feudal holdings known as caput plebis (at the head, likely in geographical and not hierarchical sense, of the pieve, an ecclesiastical lesser subdivision). A document from the year 1157 says the Visconti were holders of the captaincy of Marliano (today Mariano Comense); late chronicler Galvano Fiamma confirms this version. Decades before that, before 1070, they had gained the title of viscount to be later inherited down the male line (Biscaro, ASL, "I maggiori dei Visconti di Milano"). The family dispersed into several branches, some of which were entrusted fiefs far off from the Lombard metropolis; the one which gave the Medieval lords of Milan is said to be descended from Umberto (d. in the first half of the 12th century).
The Visconti ruled Milan until the early Renaissance, first as Lords, then, from 1395, with the mighty Gian Galeazzo who endeavored to unify Northern Italy and Tuscany, as Dukes. Visconti rule in Milan ended with the death of Filippo Maria Visconti in 1447. He was succeeded by a short-lived republic and then by his son-in-law Francesco I Sforza, who established the reign of the House of Sforza.
Read more about this topic: House Of Visconti