Alberto Scotti
Alberto Scotti or Scoto (1252 – 1318) was an Italian nobleman, banker and politician, who was Lord of Piacenza on several occasions between 1290 and 1313 and, for a brief period between 1302 and 1304, also Lord of Milan.
Biography
Descendant of the noble Scotti Douglas family, Alberto was the son of Giovanni Scotti (son of Lanfranco) and Mabilia.
In 1290, he became Lord of Piacenza, exploiting popular favour and resentment against the city's magnates. Having seized power, the following year, in 1291, he had his father-in-law, Alberto Fontana, banished from the city. Subsequently, he expanded his holdings to Borgonovo and later Tortona.
As lord of the city of Piacenza, he sought to strike the rival families of the Scotti Douglas, in particular the Landi family, against whom he sent soldiers to besiege Zavattarello Castle, then held by Ubertino Landi. Zavattarello later became part of the possessions of the Scotti Douglas family.
In 1290, he founded the town of Castel San Giovanni, beginning the construction of a new castle surrounded by walls near the pieve of Olubra, while in 1292 he had the Palazzo del Duca built in Castell'Arquato, which was used as a courthouse.
In 1299, he purchased from the municipality of Piacenza the possession of Fombio and Valverde, thereby expanding his personal fortunes, while in the early years of the fourteenth century he began the fortification of Vigoleno Castle.
In perpetual struggle with the Visconti, in April 1302 he became head of an anti-Visconti league together with the cities of Cremona, Pavia, Novara, Vercelli, Lodi, Crema and Monferrato, due to the ingratitude shown to him by Matteo Visconti. On 2 June of the same year, in Lodi, he took command of the armies of these cities, marching towards Cassano. Having defeated the Visconti, on 13 June he was in Milan to discuss the Peace of Pioltello. Having become president of the general council, he entrusted the leadership of the city for six months to his son, as rector. At odds with the Della Torre family, he then drew closer to Matteo Visconti, with whom he had a meeting in Piacenza in 1303. Between May and December 1304 he was engaged in a war with the Della Torre, who managed to defeat him, taking the leadership of the Guelph league of Lombardy and indirectly favouring the return of the Visconti.
Having thus passed to the Ghibelline faction, in 1304 he was driven out of Piacenza, suffering the destruction of all his possessions in the city. In 1309, he recovered power, only to lose it the following year and reconquer it again in 1312. Definitively driven from the city in 1313 following the defeat suffered by Galeazzo Visconti, he was first a prisoner in Milan and then on the run.
In 1317, he was captured in Castell'Arquato and confined to Crema, where he died the following year.
Descendancy
He left seven children from his first wife: Giovanna, Franceschina, Mabilina, Pietro, Giacomo, Nicolò (respectively the progenitors of the Vicomarino, Castel San Giovanni and Fombio branches of the Scotti Douglas family) and Francesco I, who reasserted his family's power over Piacenza in 1335, but had to cede it the following year to Azzone Visconti, Lord of Milan. From his second wife, Sibillina Rozzoni, he had no children.