Pandolfo III Malatesta

Pandolfo III Malatesta (c. 1369 – October 3, 1427) was an Italian condottiero and lord of Fano, a member of the famous House of Malatesta.

He was the second son of Galeotto I Malatesta. After the latter's death, the Malatesta lands were divided: he received Fano, while his brothers Carlo, Andrea and Galeotto Novello inherited Rimini, Cesena and Cervia, respectively. Galeotto's sons were educated under humanists like Giacomo Allegretti and the famous Francesco Filelfo.

Pandolfo began his career as condottiero at the age of 18, leading a band of masnadieri to ravage Tuscany. In 1388 he accepted a condotta from Venice against the Carraresi family of Padua. In 1393 he fought with Andrea against the Ordelaffi of Forlì, but his occupation of Todi and Narni, then part of the neighbouring Papal States, attracted him the excommunication of Pope Boniface IX. Later pardoned, he fought against the Visconti of Milan in a League supporting Francesco I Gonzaga of Mantua.

Pandolfo then went on crusade in the Holy Land, returning in 1402. Hired by Gian Galeazzo Visconti together with his brother Andrea, he fought in the victorious battle of Casalecchio against Bologna, and was subsequently named governor of that city. After Gian Galeazzo's death, he acted as advisor of his widow Caterina. He took advantage of that position, as well as of other condottas for Italian states, to enlarge his small seigniory and ravage the neighbouring states and cities (like Trezzo and Como in 1403, followed by Brescia in 1404, which he received from the Visconti as payment of his 200,000 ducati credit, and Bergamo in 1407).

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