Valentina was born in Pavia as the second of the four children of Gian Galeazzo Visconti, the first Duke of Milan, and his first wife Isabelle,[1] a daughter of King John II the Good of France.

[3] The deaths of her brothers Carlo (1374), Gian Galeazzo (1376) and Azzone (1381) left Valentina as the only surviving child of her parents' marriage and the Countess of Vertus, a title she shared with her spouse.

[6][7] King Wenceslaus became aware of the double game of Gian Galeazzo, and broke off the negotiations with a letter full of insults, leaving Louis, her first cousin, the only suitor of Valentina.

Valentina was only able to leave Milan for France on 23 June 1389, because of "reasons of security" given to her father: in fact, Gian Galeazzo wanted to amend the marriage contract after the pregnancy of his second wife Caterina Visconti (another Bernabò's daughter) ended.

Escorted by her paternal cousin Amadeus VII, Count of Savoy and a retinue of 300 knights, Valentina was finally handed to Louis's envoys.

A patroness of Eustache Deschamps, who wrote poetry in her honour, Valentina was also the mother of one of France's most famous poets, Charles of Orléans.