Duchy of Milan & Three Italian Wars, 1494-1504
Valsassina was part of the Lordship of Milan and succeeding Duchy of Milan, under the Holy Roman Empire, dating back to the 14th Century when ruled by the Visconti family and their successor House of Sforza.
In the south of Italy, the king of Naples died in 1494 and his son, Alfonso II of Naples succeeded him. The Sforzas of Milan were alarmed because Alfonso II laid claim to Milan through his wife, Ippolita Maria Sforza, whose maternal grandfather had been a Visconti Duke of Milan. France's King Charles VIII disputed the succession, invaded Italy, and made a six-month sweep south to Naples through Genoa, the Papal States, Florence, and Rome. Louis of Orléans (who later succeeded Charles VIII as Louix XII) also participated in the French campaign. After the French easily won their first battle, Ludovico "il Moro" Sforza allied Milan with France in the hope of maintaining his hold on the duchy. However, concerned by the ease with which France speedily and brutally defeated Italian forces, and the possibility that Charles VIII might take all of Italy, Ludovico switched sides in 1495 and joined the Italy-wide League of Venice in opposition to France.
With the death of Charles VIII in 1498, Louis, Duke of Orléans, ascended the throne as King Louis XII. He also claimed to be a successor to the Visconti line through his paternal grandmother, Valentina Visconti, and wrested Milan from the Sforzas for 13 years. Milan changed hands twice between the Sforzas and France until the last Sforza, who was installed by the Swiss, died heirless in 1535.
Habsburg Rule, 1556-1859
With the passing of the House of Sforza, Habsburg Spain (1516-1700) and the Kingdom of France vied for control of Milan. Habsburg Spain ruled Milan from 1556 until 1707, during the War of the Spanish Succession (1701-1714), when Habsburg Austria took over possession of Milan. Austria ruled Milan from 1714 until 1796, when France's Napoleon Bonaparte conquered it, abolished the duchy, and replaced it with two short-lived republics. After Napoleon's defeat and the Congress of Vienna of 1815, the Duchy of Milan became part of the Kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia (1815-1859) with the Emperor of Austria as its king.
Italian Unification & Kingdom of Italy, 1861-1946
Modern-day Lombardia was ruled by the Kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia under the Empire of Austria from 1815 until 1859. The First Italian War of Independence ignited when the cities of Milan and Venice rose up against Austrian rule and Milan drove out Marshal Josef Radetzky and his Austrian soldiers during five days of street fighting in March 1848. The Kingdom of Sardinia (Piedmont-Sardinia), the western neighbor of Lombardy-Venetia that was ruled by King Charles Albert of the Franco-Italian House of Savoy, sought to oust the Austrian Empire and unify Italy. Seeing himself as an Italian liberator, he crossed into Lombardy-Venetia and flew the Italian tricolor flag, which dated back to the short-lived Cispadane Republic of 1796, under Napoleon, with his Savoy coat of arms in its center. Troops from monarchies across the Italian peninsula were sent to Lombardy-Venetia but with their own agendas and little coordination among them. Radetzky and his Austrian forces regrouped and then counterattacked, driving the Piedmontese army back to Milan where Charles Albert surrendered the city and was allowed to retreat with his army back to Piedmont.
During the following seven-month armistice, Charles Albert rebuilt his Piedmontese army and planned to reinvade Lombardy-Venetia, but Radetzky launched a surprise attack and decisively defeated Charles Albert at Novara in March 1849. Charles Albert abdicated his throne to his son Vittorio Emanuele II in 1849 and soon after died in exile. Thus the First War of Italian Independence ended in failure.
Ten years later, King Vittorio Emanuele II formed a military alliance with France, under Emperor Napoleon III, in January 1859 with the aim to oust Austria from Italy and, in return for France's support, Piedmont-Sardinia would cede the Duchy of Savoy and County of Nice to France. Piedmont-Sardinia mobilized its army in March. Austria followed suit in April, demanded that Piedmont-Sardinia demobilize, but when it did not, Austria invaded Piedmont-Sardinia on April 29. In accordance with the alliance, France subsequently declared war against Austria on May 3 and invaded Lombardia, defeated the Austrians. Upon gaining Lombardia, France immediately ceded it to the Kingdom of Sardinia and took Savoy and Nice in return.
King Vittorio Emanuele II of Sardinia became King of Italy on March 17, 1861. Continuing his quest to unify Italy, he launched the Third War of Italian Independence in 1866, this time allied with Prussia who concurrently launched the Austro-Prussian War to oust Austria from the German Confederation and unify Germany. Italy was subsequently unified and Prussia successfully united the North German Confederation.