The bitter and well-balanced rivalry between the nobles and the people, and the endless danger to which it exposed the city owing to the fact that the nobles were always ready to claim the protection of their feudal chief, the emperor, brought to the front two noble families as protagonists of the contending factions— the Torriani of Valsassina, and the Visconti, who derived their name from the office of delegates which they had held under the archbishops. After the battle of Cortenova, in 1237, where Fred erick II. defeated the Guelph army of the Milanese and captured their carroccio, Pagano della Torre rallied and saved the remnants of the Milanese. This act recommended him to popular favour, and he was called to the government of the city—but only for the distinct purpose of establishing the "catasta," a property tax which should fall with equal incidence on every citizen. This was a democratic measure which marked the party to which the Torriani belonged and rendered it hateful to the nobility. Pagano died in 1241. His nephew Martino followed as podesta, in 1256, and in 1259 as signore of Milan—the first time such a title was heard in Italy. The nobles who had gathered round the Visconti, and who threatened to bring Ezzelino da Romano, the Ghibelline tyrant of Padua, into the city, were defeated by Martino, and 900 of their number were captured. Martino was followed by two other Tor riani, Filippo his brother (1263-65) and Napoleone his cousin (1265-77), as lords of Milan. Napoleone obtained the title of imperial vicar from Rudolph of Habsburg. But the nobles under the Visconti had been steadily gathering strength, and Napoleone was defeated at Desio in 1277. He ended his life in a wooden cage at Castel Baradello .above Como.
Otto Visconti, archbishop of Milan (1262), the victor of Desio, became lord of Milan, and founded the house of Visconti, who ruled the city—except from 1302 to 1310—till 1447, giving 12 lords to Milan. On the death in that year of Filippo, the last male
of the Visconti house, a republic was proclaimed, which lasted only three years. In 1450 the general Francesco Sforza, who had mar ried Filippo's only child Bianca Visconti, became duke of Milan by right of conquest. Francesco was followed by five of the Sforza family, and from the death of the last (1535) till the War of the Spanish Succession (1714) Milan was a dependency of the Spanish Crown. At the close of that war it was handed over to Austria, under whose rule it remained until the Napoleonic cam paign of 1796. For the results of that campaign, and for the his tory of Italian progress towards independence, in which Milan played a prominent part, see ITALY. The Lombard campaign of 1859, with the battles of Solferino and Magenta, finally made Milan a part of the kingdom of Italy.