Bianca Maria Visconti as the second favorite Milanese Saint of the 14th and 15th centuries and at the beginning of the 16th century.
Bianca Maria Visconti with her first son, Galeazzo Maria, as the Virgin Mary and the Child Jesus.
Bianca Maria Visconti as Saint Margaret, one of the most important female saints of the Milanese House of the Visconti, because this saint was associated like the Visconti with the symbol of a dragon.
Bianca Maria Visconti was born on 31 March 1425 as the illegitimate daughter of Filippo Maria Visconti, Duke of Milan and Agnese del Maino. Her mother served as lady-in-waiting to Filippo’s wife, Beatrice di Tenda, who was tortured and executed on her husband’s orders before Bianca’s birth.
Bianca and her mother were sent to live in Abbiate when she was just six months old, and it was there that she received a humanist education.
In the winter of 1447/1448, the Venetian fleet needed to pass the bridge at Cremona, her dotal city, in order to attack Francesco, who was stationed at Pavia. Bianca Maria headed a squadron of faithful Cremonese against the Venetians. When they disembarked to try to destroy the bridge, she rode out in her parade armor and threw a spear at a Venetian attacker, hitting him in the mouth. Her display of courage rallied the defenders, who drove off the enemy with heavy Venetian casualties. Another time Bianca Maria arrived in Francesco's camp as he was about to abandon a siege due to inclement weather. At her urging, a new bombardment was begun until the resisting city's walls collapsed and the inhabitants yielded.
In 1449, after a three-year war of succession, the influence of her family name on the Milanese as well as their affection for her helped effect the overthrow of the Ambrosian Republic, which had been set up after her father's death. In 1450 Bianca Maria and her husband made their triumphal entry into Milan on horseback at the head of the troops, disdaining to ride in the chariot that had been prepared. About two years later, while Francesco was away on the Brescia campaign Bianca Maria ordered a military expedition to suppress a rebellion at the castle at Monza. Some chroniclers state that she went there personally to direct the action, but other documentary evidence seems negative on that point. After her husband died in 1466, she demonstrated her political acumen, serving as regent and preserving the duchy for her son Galeazzo.
Well-educated, dignified, energetic, and intelligent, Bianca employed the best humanistic tutors of the day to educate her eight children. She governed capably in the absence of her campaigning husband and accompanied him into exile according to the exigencies of their political fortunes. She did not hesitate to assume military roles as the occasion demanded to help establish and preserve the dynasty.
As her spouse defended his territories against the ongoing expansionism of Venice, she sometimes joined him, riding on horseback "not like a lady but as a valorous captain. On those occasions when she reviewed the troops, she rode in parade armor accompanied by a troop of liveried Amazons.
A strong character, Bianca's surviving letters showed that she was able to run Milan efficiently after becoming Duchess and even supposedly donned a suit of armor and rode with her troops into battle, earning herself the nickname, Warrior Woman.
In 1430, Bianca was betrothed to Francesco I Sforza, who was 26 years older than her but her father tried to dissolve the betrothal twice in later years. They were married in the Abbey of San Sigismondo on 24 October 1441. She was appointed as regent of the Marche in 1442, while Francesco was away on a military campaign. Their first child was born in 1444, and they would go on to have nine children. Not all children lived till adulthood.
Agnese and Filippo had a second daughter, named Caterina Maria or Lucia Maria, but she died not long after her birth.
