Violant Visconti

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Violant (Jolantha) Visconti (1354 - November 1386) was the second of the three sons of Galeazzo II Visconti - lord of Milan and Pavi - and Bianca of Savoy. His father gave him the provinces of Alba, Mondoví, Ceni, Cherasco and Demonte as an inheritance.

As a 13-year-old girl, with the promise of a great dowry of her father, in addition to her territories, she was married to the third son of King Edward III of England, Leonel de Antwerp, 1st Duke of Clarence, in the church of St. Mary Maggiore, predecessor of the Cathedral of St. Mary Nascent, Milan, on 28 May 1368. The wedding festivities were luxurious and ostentatious. The banquet, held on the outside, included 30 types of meat and the fish was presented completely golden. Among those present, the guests were given gifts such as armor, fabric rolls, warhorses, weapons and hunting dogs. Among the guests were Geoffrey Chaucer, Petrarca, Jean Froissart and John Hawkwood. The marriage lasted very long. Leonel died in Alba on October 17 of that year, only five months after the wedding. His death could have been due to food poisoning. The Duchess of Clarence had no son with the Duke.

On 2 August 1377, Violante's father negotiated a second marriage, with the Marquis Oton III of Montferrato known as Secundotto. Sixteen months later, on 16 December 1378, Secundotto was killed after a battle in Piacenza (or Asti). They had no offspring.

On 18 April 1381, he married his cousin Ludovico Visconti, lord of Lodi and governor of Parma for the third time. He was the son of his father's uncle Bernabé Visconti and his wife Beatrice Regina della Scala. They had a son, Giovanni Visconti, who was born after 1382. Barbara Tuchman suggests that her brother could have killed her third husband.

She was the sister-in-law of Elizabeth of France, the youngest daughter of King John II of France. As a niece of Bernabé Visconti, she was cousin of Valentina Visconti, queen of Cyprus, and had cousins who married in the Austrian and Bavarian nobility, including Viridis Visconti, grandmother of Emperor Federico III of Habsburg and Tadea Visconti, mother of Isabel of Bavaria-Ingolstadt of France, whose daughters Isabel of Valois and Catalina of Valois were consents of England.

Violant died in Pavia in November 1386 at the age of 32.

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Rape
House of Plantagenet
English duchesses by marriage
Born in Pavia
Dead in Pavia
Italian nobles of the 14th century
Marquesas consortes de Montferrato
Women leaders of the 14th century