Violante Visconti

{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2021}}

{{Infobox royalty

| title = Duchess of Clarence
Marchioness of Montferrat

| image = File:Violante e Gian Galeazzo Visconti.jpg

| caption = Violante Visconti with her brother, Gian Galeazzo

| full name = Violante (Jolantha) Visconti

| birth_date = 1354

| birth_place =

| death_date = November {{death year and age|1386|1354}}

| death_place = Pavia

| house = Visconti

| father = Galeazzo II Visconti

| mother = Bianca of Savoy

| spouse = {{plainlist|

• {{marriage|Lionel of Antwerp, 1st Duke of Clarence
  |May 1368|October 1368|end=d.}}
• {{marriage|Secondotto, Marquess of Montferrat
  |1377|1378|end=d.}}
• {{marriage|Ludovico Visconti
  |1381}}

}}

| issue = Giovanni Visconti

}}

Violante (Jolantha) Visconti (1354 – November 1386) was the second of two children of Galeazzo II Visconti, Lord of Milan and Pavia, and Bianca of Savoy.{{sfnp|Cook |1916|pp=48–49, 56–57}} Her father gave to her the provinces of Alba, Mondovì, Cuneo, Cherasco, and Demonte as an inheritance.

As a 13-year-old, with the promise of a large dowry from her father, in addition to her territories, she was married to the second son of King Edward III of England, Lionel of Antwerp, 1st Duke of Clarence, in the church of Santa Maria Maggiore, the predecessor of the Cathedral of Santa Maria Nascente, Milan, on 28 May 1368.{{cite book |last= Leese |first= T. Anna |title=Blood Royal: Issue of the kings and queens of medieval England, 1066–1399 : the Normans and Plantagenets |year=1996 |page=149 |location= Bowie, Md |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zQLjug_Pr9wC&pg=PA149 |oclc= 35870708 |isbn= 9780788405259 }} The wedding festivities were lavish and ostentatious.{{cite book |last=Effinger |first=J. R.|title=Women of the Romance countries |url=https://archive.org/details/womenoftheromanc18642gut |access-date=3 April 2010 |series=Woman in all ages and in all countries |volume=6 | year=1907 |publisher=G. Barrie |location=Philadelphia, PA |oclc=9128840 |chapter=Chapter VI |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/womenoftheromanc18642gut }} The banquet, held outside, included 30 courses of meat and fish presented fully gilded. Between the courses, the guests were given gifts such as suits of armour, bolts of cloth, war horses, arms, and hunting dogs.{{sfnp| Cook |1916|pp=60–74}}{{cite book |last1=Tuchman |first1=Barbara W. |author-link1=Barbara W. Tuchman |title=A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th century |edition=1st |date=August 1978 |publisher=Knopf |location=New York |isbn=978-0-394-40026-6 |oclc=3870107 |pages=239–243, 254 |title-link=A Distant Mirror }} Among the guests were Geoffrey Chaucer,{{cite book |last1=Coulton |first1=G. G. (George Gordon) |author-link1=G. G. Coulton |title=Chaucer and his England |url=https://archive.org/details/chaucerandhisen00coulgoog |year=1908 |publisher=Methuen & co. |location=London |isbn=978-1-112-08627-4 |oclc=287618468 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/chaucerandhisen00coulgoog/page/n74 48]–49 |access-date=25 October 2011|hdl=2027/mdp.39015068314585 }} Petrarch,{{cite book |last=Hollway-Calthrop |first=Henry Calthrop |title=Petrarch: his life and times |year=1907 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/petrarchhislifet00holl/page/279 279]–280 |location= New York |url=https://archive.org/details/petrarchhislifet00holl |oclc=263026782 |publisher=G.P. Putnam's Sons |access-date=27 March 2010 }} Jean Froissart{{sfnp| Cook |1916|pp=74–75}} and John Hawkwood.{{cite book |last1=Waters |first1=Robert Edmond Chester |title=Genealogical memoirs of the extinct family of Chester of Chicheley their ancestors and descendants |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oGMBAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA304 |volume=1 |year=1878 |publisher=Robson & Sons |location=London, UK |isbn=978-1-146-96690-0 |oclc=609150822 |hdl=2027/njp.32101073398685 }} The marriage was short-lived. Lionel died in Alba on 17 October that year, just five months after the wedding. His death may have been due to food poisoning.{{cite web |last=Field |first=Graham |date=30 June 2008 |title=Lionel Plantaganet |url=http://www.themcs.org/characters/Lionel%20Plantagenet.htm |access-date=25 October 2011 |publisher=Mediaeval Combat Society |location=Middlesex, England}} The Duchess of Clarence had no issue by the Duke.

On 2 August 1377, Violante's father negotiated a second marriage, to Secondotto, Marquess of Montferrat. Sixteen months later, on 16 December 1378, Secondotto was assassinated after a battle at Piacenza (or Asti).{{sfnp|Cook |1916|pp=107–108}}{{cite book |last1= Bertelli |first1=Sergio |last2=Cardini |first2=Franco |last3=Zorzi |first3=Elvira Garbero |last4=Acanfora |first4=Elisa |last5=Chesne |first5=Giuliana |last6=Griffo |first6=Daphiné |last7=Fantoni |first7=Marcello |last8=Florescu |first8=Ileana |last9=Galli |first9=Daniela Mignani |title=The courts of the Italian Renaissance |year=1986 |publisher=Facts on File |location=New York, NY |oclc= 13792156 |page=58 }} They had no issue.

On 18 April 1381, she married a third time to her cousin Ludovico Visconti, lord governor of Lodi and Parma. He was the son of her paternal uncle Bernabò Visconti and his wife, Beatrice Regina della Scala.{{sfnp|Cook|1916|pp=109–110}} They had a son, Giovanni Visconti, who was born after 1382.[http://www.maximiliangenealogy.co.uk/maximilia/pafg44.htm#28805 Maximilian Genealogy Master Database 2000, 19 November 2009]. Retrieved 3 April 2010 Barbara Tuchman suggests that her brother may have killed her third husband.

Violante died in Pavia in November 1386, at the age of 32[http://www.maximiliangenealogy.co.uk/maximilia/pafg44.htm#555 Maximilian Genealogy Master Database 2000, 19 November 2009]. Retrieved 3 April 2010 and was buried in the basilica of San Pietro in Ciel d'Oro.{{cite web |url=https://www.academia.edu/36402408|title= Non iam capitanei, sed reges nominarentur: progetti regi e rivendicazioni politiche nei rituali funerari dei Visconti (XIV secolo) |work=Courts and Courtly Cultures in Early Modern Italy and Europe. Models and Languages. |date= January 2015 |access-date=31 July 2022|last1= Majocchi |first1= Piero }}