Como against Milan: the communal age

The Ten Years' War

From the late eleventh century the cities of Lombardy emancipated themselves from their bishops and counts and became self-governing communes. Their rivalry turned the territory of the Ticino into a theatre of war. The most serious conflict was the war between Milan and Como of 1118 to 1127, known in Italian historiography as the guerra decennale.¹ Como, which controlled the lake and the routes towards the Alpine passes, fought against a Milan that wanted access to those routes and resented Como's independence. The lake communities took sides. The Isola Comacina, the island fortress in Lake Como, and several places on the western shore sided with Milan, while the Sottoceneri remained, with some exceptions, in Como's camp.² The war ended in 1127 with the capture and partial destruction of Como by the Milanese. The consequences for the territory north of the city were limited in the short term, because Milan did not establish direct rule over the Sottoceneri. They became important in the next generation, when Frederick Barbarossa tried to restore imperial authority in Lombardy. Como, humiliated by Milan, became one of the emperor's most loyal allies. Frederick rebuilt its walls and confirmed its rights over the surrounding territory, including Lugano and the routes to the passes, while Milan, destroyed by the emperor in 1162, led the resistance of the Lombard League.³

Barbarossa, the passes and the imperial interest

The imperial interest in the region was strategic. An emperor who wanted to reach Italy from Germany needed secure passes and loyal cities at their southern end. Frederick's diplomas for Como and for the Locarnese nobility served this purpose, as did his dealings with the Tre Valli.⁴ In Locarno the capitanei, the local noble families who held rights from the bishop of Como, received imperial confirmation of their privileges. The Leventina and Blenio became the scene of conflicts between partisans of the emperor and of Milan, which led to the pact of Torre discussed in the preceding section. The period left the territory with a lasting pattern: local powers used the conflict between emperor and cities to secure their own privileges, which they then had written down.

This pattern had an economic side. Privileges granted by the emperor or by the cities frequently concerned markets, tolls and exemptions from tolls. A community that could show a charter exempting its members from the toll of Como or of Bellinzona held an asset of real value, which it defended in court and had confirmed by each new lord. When the Confederates took over the Ticinese districts in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, they were confronted with dozens of such privileges and confirmed most of them. The layering of privileges, each dating from a different lordship, is typical of the region's legal history.⁵

Guelphs, Ghibellines and the Rusca

In the thirteenth century Como was divided between two factions, the Guelph Vitani and the Ghibelline Rusca (in older sources Rusconi). The Rusca, a noble family of Como, dominated the city for long periods and built up a network of rights and properties in the Sottoceneri, in the Locarnese and at Bellinzona.⁶ Their struggles with the Vitani and with Milan, where the Della Torre and then the Visconti fought for control of the city, spilled over into the territory. Castles changed hands, villages were burned and exiles of one faction found shelter in the lands of the other. Lugano and Locarno were repeatedly occupied and fortified. Franchino Rusca, the leading member of the family in the early fourteenth century, became lord of Como with Visconti support and held the city, with interruptions, until 1335.⁷ His lordship shows the transition from commune to signoria that took place across northern Italy in the same period. The communal institutions continued to exist, but real power passed to a single family that controlled the militia, appointed officials and negotiated with the emperor and with other lords. The same transition was taking place in Milan, where the Visconti had established themselves as lords after 1277 and would soon absorb Como and its territory.⁸

The end of Como's independence

In 1335 Franchino Rusca surrendered Como to Azzone Visconti, lord of Milan. With Como, the Visconti acquired the city's rights over Lugano, Mendrisio and the Locarnese. The Rusca retained Bellinzona for some years. Only after a siege did the Visconti take the town and its castles in 1340.⁹ From then on, apart from brief episodes during the crises of the Visconti state, the whole territory south of the Alpine valleys belonged to the lordship of Milan. The age of the independent Lombard communes was over. What remained was a dense network of local rights, privileges and statutes, which the new lords of Milan administered through officials and feudatories and exploited through a fiscal system of considerable sophistication.

Essentials. From the twelfth to the early fourteenth century the Sottoceneri, the Locarnese and Bellinzona were dependencies of Como, while the Tre Valli belonged to the cathedral chapter of Milan. The Ten Years' War (1118–1127), the conflicts under Frederick Barbarossa and the factional wars of the thirteenth century made the territory a battleground of Lombard politics. The surrender of Como to the Visconti in 1335 and the fall of Bellinzona in 1340 brought the whole region under Milanese lordship.

Notes

1. The dates of the war are given in the titles of two studies in the IRIS repository of the University of Trento: "La militarizzazione del Lario Occidentale nel XII secolo: l'Isola Comacina e le relative strutture difensive durante la Guerra Decennale (1118-1127)", https://iris.unitn.it/handle/11572/322355, and "Fortificarsi per sopravvivere al tempo dei Salii: le difese a protezione di Como e del Lario nelle dinamiche della guerra decennale contro Milano (1118-1127)", https://iris.unitn.it/handle/11572/348844 (titles only consulted, 27 September 2026). Treccani, Enciclopedia Italiana, art. "Isola Comacina", https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/isola-comacina_(Enciclopedia-Italiana)/, dates the war 1117–1127. ↩
2. Treccani, Enciclopedia Italiana, art. "Isola Comacina" (above), on the island's alliance with Milan and the destruction of Como in 1127. The principal narrative source is the anonymous poem De bello et excidio urbis Comensis (the "Anonimo Cumano"). ↩
3. Treccani, Enciclopedia Italiana, art. "Como" (above), on the rebuilding of Como's walls under Frederick Barbarossa. ↩
4. DSS, art. "Locarno (comune)" (above), on Barbarossa's market privilege of 1164 and the grant of 1186; DSS, art. "Capitanei di Locarno" (above). ↩
5. DSS, art. "Baliaggi italiani" (above). See Chapter A.II. ↩
6. DSS, art. "Rusca", https://hls-dhs-dss.ch/it/articles/020181/; Treccani, Enciclopedia Italiana, art. "Rusca", https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/rusca_(Enciclopedia-Italiana)/; Treccani, Enciclopedia Italiana, art. "Como" (above), on the Vitani and Rusca factions. ↩
7. Treccani, Enciclopedia Italiana, art. "Rusca" (above), on Franchino's lordship over Como with Visconti support; Treccani, Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, art. "Rusca, Franchino", https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/franchino-rusca_(Dizionario-Biografico)/ (on his grandson of the same name), which dates the cession of Como to the Visconti to 1335. ↩
8. Treccani, Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, art. "Visconti, Ottone", https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/ottone-visconti_(Dizionario-Biografico)/: victory at Desio on 20–21 January 1277. The article notes that recent research questions the traditional reading of Desio as the foundation of the Visconti lordship, which was consolidated under Matteo Visconti from 1289/1294. ↩
9. Treccani, Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, art. "Rusca, Franchino" (above), on the loss of Como in 1335 and of Bellinzona in 1340; DSS, art. "Bellinzona (comune)" (above). ↩

For general information only. This article does not constitute legal or tax advice, does not replace advice on an individual case and creates no lawyer-client relationship. It reflects the legal position as of August 2025.