Peace, conflict, and the Alpine territories under the Visconti in the fourteenth and fifteenth Centuries

Finding themselves involved in incessant conflicts, the individual families and small rural communities who inhabited border areas under the Visconti attempted to resolve hostilities at a local level. At the same time, once they began to form a more defined territorial state, the Visconti hoped to reinforce their own authority as peace keepers. It is worth asking how peace attempts from above related to those from below. This paper looks at peace agreements and peace-making attempts undertaken in the area between Novara and Bergamo, focusing on the different groups and entities which made up the Visconti dominions. The territories of Novara and Bergamo each had very different relationships with their central city, offering the Visconti various possibilities for collaborating with local agents in making peace. These issues will be examined in the context of Guelph rebellions in the Alpine and pre-Alpine areas during the second half of the 14th century.