A republic was declared behind the Palace of the Commune, and the captains abandoned their oaths to Alfonso in favor of it. On the morning of the 14th, Republicans stirred the populace to rise against the Bracceschi, under the leadership of Antonio Trivulzio (seniore), Giorgio Lampugnano, Innocenzo Cotta, and Teodoro Bossi, members of the College of Jurisprudence. The merchants, seeing the prosperity of Republican Venice, supported this idea. Learned bodies, such as the College of Jurisprudence in Pavia, painted the days of the old republic as a golden age. ĭespite the general support for either Alfonso or Sforza, other influential citizens believed that the old republic could be restored. The Bracceschi family, supporters of the King of Aragon, seized the Castello on the night of the 13th, almost before Filippo Maria died, forcing the captains to swear allegiance to Alfonso. The two most prominent candidates supported by the Milanese population were however Alfonso of Aragon and Francesco Sforza, the Duke's son-in-law by marriage to his illegitimate daughter, Bianca Maria Visconti.
Among the other claimants were Charles, Duke of Orléans, nephew of Filippo Maria through his half-sister Valentina Visconti Filippo's cousins Albert and Sigismund of the House of Habsburg, great-grandsons of Bernabò Visconti and Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor, who declared that the Duchy reverted to the Holy Roman Empire on the extinction of its male heirs. Filippo Maria had no heir through male bloodlines, but the day before his death he had written a will bequeathing the Duchy to Alfonso V of Aragon. When Filippo Maria Visconti, Duke of Milan, died on 13 August 1447, the city was thrown into confusion by his unexpected demise and the speed with which claimants to his title acted. 1.3 Sforza's defection and the Guelph–Ghibelline feud.
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