The Duchy of Milan was a state in northern Italy, created in 1395 by Gian Galeazzo Visconti, then the lord of Milan, and a member of the important Visconti family, that had been ruling the city since 1277.. At that time, it included twenty-six towns and the wide rural area of the middle Padan Plain east of the hills of Montferrat.During much of its existence, it was wedged between Savoy …