Queen in name and in fact

Andrea di Bonaiuto (1365 - 1367), Bernabò e Beatrice Visconti, affresco nel Cappellone degli Spagnoli - Basilica di Santa Maria Novella, Firenze

She has Scala blood in her veins Beatrice della Scala, known as Regina(Queen), although her life will take place mainly in Milan. Daughter of Mastino II, therefore sister of Samaritana's father-in-law, she married Bernabò Visconti in 1350, thus becoming mistress of Milan. Regina had an energetic and persuasive character: she stood up to her irascible husband, by whom she had as many as 15 children, and advised him politically. When her brother Cansignorio della Scala died, she asserted her right to succession in the Scala seigniory and convinced her husband to attack the Veronese in what historians call "Regina's war." In 1378 she did not hesitate to put herself at the head of 1,400 knights by taking command of the Visconti's military maneuvers against the Scaligeri. Wise and ambitious, she also knew how to independently administer various funds and jurisdictions of the Visconti estates, deriving great wealth from them. The innovative trait that distinguished her from other princesses of her time was her ability to weave her own networks of relationships, influencing politics and diplomacy as a protagonist.