After his death in 1367, Cardinal Albonoz left Italy particularly susceptible to control by mercenaries. This would give rise to merchant families within Italian cities states, like the Visconti family who came to dominate Milan and the rest of northern Italy by the fifteenth century. Galeazzo II Visconti, alone, played an important role in centralizing power under the Visconti name through various military campaigns in the fourteenth century. These military operations allowed him to come into control of densely populated areas and to, therefore, amass a significant amount of power that would be passed down to his son Gian Galeazzo Visconti. Gian Galeazzo's inheritance helped him come closest in uniting all of Italy under a central rule, therefore marking the important contribution that Galeazzo II made to the Visconti family legacy.