Milan was a duchy in northern Italy. Originally, it was part of the HRE. 1407, Maffeo Servitore, a cunning Florentine diplomat, devised a plan. Florence, Savoy and Venice divided all of Northern Italy except Genoa into spheres of influences, which said three states were allowed to conquer. Otherwise, the big three were supposed to live in peace. Until the 1430s, this is what happened: The little city-states (which were near collapse after the difficult 14th century) of Northern Italy were "mopped up" and annexed. Milan was one of the last states to fall, ended up divided between Savoy and Venice; the capital itself fell to the former.