Filippo Maria Visconti Dies in Milan

1447

The last male Visconti died childless in his bed, ending two centuries of family rule. Milan briefly proclaimed itself the Ambrosian Republic. Within three years, Francesco Sforza, a mercenary captain married to the duke's bastard daughter, would ride in and simply take the city by starvation and bribery. The brief Ambrosian Republic that followed was one of Italy's few republican experiments, lasting barely three years before collapsing.