Antonia Malatesta of Cesena, also known as Antonia Malatesta of Rimini, was a Duchess of Milan by marriage to

Giovanni Maria Visconti Gian Maria Visconti (or Giovanni Maria; 7 September 1388 – 16 May 1412) was the second Visconti Duke of Milan, the son of Gian Galeazzo Visconti and Caterina Visconti. He was known to be cruel and was eventually assassinated. He had no child ...

. She was the Regent of Milan in the interim after the death of her spouse in 1412.

Life

Antonia Malatest was born sometime after 1391 in Cesena and was the daughter of the condottiero Andrea Malatesta and Ricciarda (or Rengarda) Alidosi and the niece of Carlo I Malatesta, Lord of

Cesena Cesena (; ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy; and - with Forlì - is the capital of the Province of Forlì-Cesena. Served by Autostrada A14 (Italy), Autostrada A14, and located near the Apennine M ...

, Fano, Pesaro, and

Rimini Rimini ( , ; or ; ) is a city in the Emilia-Romagna region of Northern Italy. Sprawling along the Adriatic Sea, Rimini is situated at a strategically-important north-south passage along the coast at the southern tip of the Po Valley. It is ...

. Her paternal grandparents were Gaelotto Malatesta and Elisabetta da Varano, while her maternal grandparents were

Bertrando Alidosi Bertrando Alidosi (died 12 November 1391) was an Italian condottiere and the Lord of Imola(as Papal vicar) from 1372 until 1391. He was the son of Roberto Alidosi, and succeeded in his signoria to Azzo Alidosi, to whom he had been associated by wil ...

and Elisa Tarlati. Antonia's mother, Rengarda, died very young in 1401, allegedly repudiated by her husband Malatesta and then poisoned by her brothers on suspicion of adultery. Antonia's father would marry twice more. Antonia's stepmother, Lucrezia Ordelaffi, was also said to have been poisoned just days after giving birth to Antonia's half-sister Parisina.

Marriage

The Malatesta family wished to ally themselves with the powerful Visconti family and persuaded with the young Duke of Milan

, the

Duke of Milan Milan was ruled by dukes from the 13th century to 1814, after which it was incorporated into the Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia by the Congress of Vienna. List of dukes of Milan House of Visconti In 1395, Gian Galeazzo Visconti was titled Duke ...

to marry Antonia Malaesta.married Antonia in the city of

Brescia Brescia (, ; ; or ; ) is a city and (municipality) in the region of Lombardy, in Italy. It is situated at the foot of the Alps, a few kilometers from the lakes Lake Garda, Garda and Lake Iseo, Iseo. With a population of 199,949, it is the se ...

in 1408. They had no children. In 1410, Antonia sheltered

Beatrice di Tenda ''Beatrice di Tenda'' is a tragic opera in two acts by Vincenzo Bellini, from a libretto by Felice Romani, after the play of the same name by . Initially, a play by Alexandre Dumas was chosen as the subject for the opera, but Bellini had reserva ...

after her husband

Facino Cane Facino Cane. Facino Cane da Casale (1360 – 16 May 1412), born Bonifacio Cane, was an Italian condottiero. Biography Facino Cane was born in Casale Monferrato to a noble family that produced a number of military captains and administrators. Hi ...

had been driven from Milan due the persecutions of Antonia's husband.

Husband's assassination

On May 16, 1412, while Giovanni Maria was on his way to the church of San Gottardo, a large group of conspirators, among whom belonged to the major Milanese noble families, stabbed him to death. After Giovanni Maria's assassination in 1412, the succeeding Duke of Milan,

Filippo Maria Visconti Filippo Maria Visconti (3 September 1392 – 13 August 1447) was the duke of Duchy of Milan, Milan from 1412 to 1447. Reports stated that he was "paranoid", but "shrewd as a ruler." He went to war in the 1420s with Romagna, Republic of Florenc ...

, permitted Antonia to continue sharing the governance of the duchy for a few months. Although she soon retired to Cesena, she retained her title, Duchess of Milan.

Death

The date of her death is unknown.

In art

A portrait of Antonia at the Certosa (a Carthusian monastery, north of Pavia) and a portrait of her husband
ref name="Campo">

In literature

* ''Bellarion'', by

Raphael Sabatini Rafael Sabatini (29 April 1875 – 13 February 1950) was an Italian-born British writer of romance and adventure novels. He is best known for his worldwide bestsellers: '' The Sea Hawk'' (1915), '' Scaramouche'' (1921), ''Captain Blood'' (a.k ...

Notes

# In the case of Antonias mother Rengarda these allegations seems have to be made much later. The Italian librarian and bibliographer Romeo Gallo examines these claims in Atti e memorie (1922) and finds severally disrepancies.

References

15th-century Italian nobility 15th-century Italian women 15th-century women regents 15th-century regents Duchesses of Milan House of Malatesta Regents in the Holy Roman Empire {{Italy-noble-stub