Taddea Visconti

Taddea Visconti
Duchess of Bavaria
Spouse(s) Stephen III, Duke of Bavaria
Issue
Louis VII, Duke of Bavaria
Isabeau, Queen of France
Noble family Visconti
Father Bernabò Visconti, Lord of Milan
Mother Beatrice Regina della Scala
Born 1351
Milan, Italy
Died 28 September 1381
Munich, Germany

Taddea Visconti, Duchess of Bavaria (1351 – 28 September 1381) was an Italian noblewoman of the Visconti family who ruled Milan from 1277 to 1447. She was the first wife of Stephen III, Duke of Bavaria, and the mother of Isabeau of Bavaria, Queen consort of King Charles VI of France.[1]

Contents

Family

Taddea was born in Milan in 1351 sometime after 27 June, the eldest child of Bernabò Visconti, Lord of Milan,[2] and Beatrice Regina della Scala (1331–18 June 1384).[3] She had sixteen younger siblings. Her paternal grandparents were Stefano Visconti, Lord of Milan, and Valentina Doria, and her maternal grandparents were Mastino II della Scala and Taddea da Carrara.

Her father Bernabò, continually at war with the papacy, was a ruthless despot[4] who would, in 1385, be overthrown by his nephew and son-in-law Gian Galeazzo Visconti and later poisoned in the castle of Trezzo.[5]

Marriage

Bavaria was the wealthiest and most powerful of the German states at the times. Bernabò managed to secure the marriages of four of his children to members of the ruling Wittelsbach family. Taddea, being the eldest, was the first of the four Visconti children selected.

In 1367, Taddea married, as his first wife, Stephen III of Bavaria-Ingolstadt, who, on 13 May 1375, became Duke of Bavaria. He ruled jointly with his brothers Frederick and John II in Bavaria-Landshut. Taddea brought a dowry of 100,000 gold ducats.[6] Her husband Stephen was described as "reckless, prodigal, ostentatious, amorous, restless without a tournament or war and well-suited to a Visconti daughter"[7]

The marriage produced three children:

Taddea died on 28 September 1381 in Munich at the age of thirty. She was buried in Unsere Liebe Frau.[8] Less than four years later, her daughter, Isabeau, became Queen consort of France. Taddea's husband Stephen married secondly, on 16 January 1401, Elisabeth of Cleves, daughter of Count Adolf III of Cleves. This second marriage was childless.

Through Isabeau's youngest daughter, Catherine of Valois, Taddea was an ancestress of the Tudor dynasty which ruled England from 1485 to 1603.

Ancestry

References

  1. ^ Charles Cawley, Medieval Lands, Dukes of Bavaria
  2. ^ Cawley, Medieval Lands, Lords of Milan, Visconti
  3. ^ Cawley, Medieval Lands, Lords of Milan, Visconti
  4. ^ Barbara Tuchman, A Distant Mirror, p. 254, published by Alfred A Knopf, New York, 1978
  5. ^ Barbara Tuchman, A Distant Mirror,ps.437-438
  6. ^ Barbara Tuchman, A Distant Mirror, p. 436.
  7. ^ Barbara Tuchman, A Distant Mirror, pages 436-437
  8. ^ Cawley, Medieval Lands, Dukes of Bavaria.
Preceded by
Katharine of Bohemia (United Bavaria)		 Duchess of Bavaria-Ingolstadt
With Maddalena Visconti
1375–1381		 Succeeded by
Elisabeth of Cleves