Marie of Savoy, Duchess of Milan

For other people with the same name, see Marie of Savoy.

Marie of Savoy (1411–1469) was a Duchess of Milan by marriage to Filippo Maria Visconti.

Marie de Savoy

Biography

Marie was a daughter of Amadeus VIII, Duke of Savoy (later the Antipope Felix V) and Mary of Burgundy.

Filippo Maria Visconti

In 1427 negotations for a marriage between Marie and Filippo Maria Visconti,Duke of Milan began and on the 2nd December 1427 they were married by proxy at Turin. The marriage was celebrated in a lavish feast at Château du Bourget-du-lac held by the brides father.

Marriage

In 1428 Marie left Thonon and journeyed to Verceille where the seventeen year old Marie was married to the thirty-one year old, Filippo Maria on the 29 September Maries dowry was set at one hundred thousand gold florins.

Marie's husband was a capable ruler but he had a suspicious and paranoid nature after experiencing his older brother the former duke having been assasinated by his close attendants.

Filippo Maria was already in a devoted and long- term relationship with his mistress, Agnese del Maino who had given birth to his daughter Bianca Maria in 1425. She was however not seen as suitable and of high enough rank to become duchess of Milan ,so Filippo Maria was pressured by his advisers to make a more suitable marriage and concieve an heir.After the marriage Filippo Maria left his new wife mostly alone; but at same time he was so anxious of his young wife being unfaithful that he had her isolated her and had her attended only by women. Deeply superstitious he paid huge sums to astrologers and magicians to find a way for him to have a son and heir. But they had no children.

Marie on the other hand was said to have so much affection for her husband, that a Milanese historian remarked, that on the day her husband had touched her hands, she did not want to wash them. Marie was very virtuous, and because of that she was venerated in Milan. She also expressed her piety through comissioning a breviary. Bréviaire de Marie de Savoie (ca. 1430)

Widowhood

After the death of Filippo Maria in 1442 Marie tried to advocate for her brother Louis of Savoy to become the next duke of Milan. This was based on a proposal that Louis had made in 1434 that should either of them die without an heir then the other should inherit the others lands.Louis had been married to Anne of Cyprus since 1432 but their first child was not born until (1435)

Marie however found herself outmaneuvered by her stepdaughters husband Francesco Sforza who suceeded her husband as the new ruler.Marie then retired to the Visconti Castle at Vercelli to religious life.

Death

Marie died in 1458 while a nun at a Saint Clare

In her will she bequeathed her wealth to her brother Louis

Sources

• Bartlett, Kenneth R. (2013). A Short History of the Italian Renaissance. North York, Ontario: University of Toronto Press. p. 181. ISBN 978-1-4426-8584-0. OCLC 870652622.
• Hand, Joni M. (2013). Women, Manuscripts and Identity in Northern Europe, 1350-1550. Routledge.
• Thevet, André (2010). Schlesinger, Roger (ed.). Portraits from the French Renaissance and the Wars of Religion. Translated by Benson, Edward. Kirksville, MO: Truman State University Press. doi:10.1515/9780271090719. ISBN 978-1-935503-60-6. OCLC 794412688.
• Wilkins, David G.; Wilkins, Rebecca L. (1996). The Search for a Patron in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Lewiston: E. Mellen Press. ISBN 0-7734-8867-7. OCLC 33440947.

External links

• Tolfo, Maria Grazia; Colussi, Paolo (January 30, 2006). "::: Storia di Milano ::: Dizionario degli artisti visconte" [History of Milan::: Dictionary of Visconti artists]. Storia di Milano (in Italian). Milano: Storiadimilano. Retrieved July 29, 2010.
• "FILIPPO MARIA VISCONTI, COMPAGNIA DEL LEONE, ricostruzione storica medievale e archeologia sperimentale" [Filippo Maria Visconti, COMPANY OF THE LION, medieval historical reconstruction and experimental archeology]. Compagnia del Leone (in Italian). Forlì: Associazione Culturale. 2004. Retrieved July 29, 2010.