Condottiere, born in Solza, Lombardy, N Italy. He was in the service of Braccio di Montone (1419), Muzio Attendolo Sforza (1424), fought for Venice with Carmagnola (1431) and Gattamelata (14327), once again for Venice, and defended Verona (1441). He was briefly head of the Ambrosiana Republic's army, but returned to Venice and became commander-in-chief in 1454 but was finally confined to Malpaga Castle. Verrocchio immortalized him with a famous equestrian monument in Venice.
Bartolomeo Colleoni (c- 1400 – November 2, 1475) was an Italian condottiere ("soldier of fortune").
Biography
Colleoni was born at Solza, in the countryside of Bergamo (Lombardy), where he prepared his magnificent mortuary chapel, the Cappella Colleoni, in a shrine that he seized when it was refused him by the local confraternity, the Consiglio della Misericordia.
The young Colleoni trained at first in the retinue of Filippo d'Arcello the new master of Piacenza. After the latter was put to death at Venice (1432), Colleoni passed to direct service of the Venetian republic, entering on the major phase of his career. Although Francesco Maria Gonzaga was namely commander-in-chief, Colleoni was in fact the true leader of the army. He recaptured many towns and districts for Venice from the Milanese, and when Gonzaga went over to the enemy, Colleoni continued to serve the Venetians under Erasmo da Narni (known as Gattamelata) and Francesco A.
When peace was made between Milan and Venice in 1441, Colleoni went over to the Milanese, together with Sforza in 1443. Although well treated at first, Colleoni soon fell under the suspicion of the treacherous Visconti and was imprisoned at Monza, where he remained until the duke's death in 1447. Milan then fell under the lordship of Sforza, whom Colleoni served for a time, but in 1448 he took leave of Sforza and returned to the Venetians. Although he occasionally fought on his own account, when Venice was at peace, he remained at the disposal of the republic in time of war until his death.
Colleoni was perhaps the most respectable of all the Italian condottieri. At his death in 1475, he left a large sum to the republic for the Turkish war, with a request that an equestrian statue of himself should be erected in the Piazza San Marco.
Italian cruiser Bartolomeo Colleoni
In 1930 the Italian Regia Marina launched a cruiser of the Condottieri class named after Bartolomeo Colleoni.
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