The House of Colonna

Claiming descent from Aeneas, the Colonna are one of the oldest families in Italian history. Their number boasted an astonishing array of cardinals, condottieri, and creatives. They influenced politics throughout Europe, reclaimed the Papacy from captivity in Avignon, protected criminals, and had a long-standing rivalry with the Orsini family.  

How do you write about a family with almost a thousand years of documented history, claiming origins in the Julio-Claudian dynasty, and are still very much active? The only reasonable way, I have learnt, is through highlighting individual figures, beginning with the beatified and ending with the rebellious.   

This is the House of Colonna. 

Margherita Colonna (1259-1280)

Named for her Orsini mother, Margherita Colonna was born in Palestrina, Lazio. Her father died when she was only two years old, and, when her mother followed eight years later, she was left in the care of her brothers – one a Roman senator named Giovanni, the other a cardinal named Giacomo.  

It is said Margherita found religion on attending Mass for the first time after a long illness. As she prayed, she looked up at the priest and saw a white dove hovering in the air above him. Her piety was such that, despite her brothers’ attempts at finding her a husband, Margherita chose celibacy and retired to the Castel San Pietro to form her own community. 

The Colonna were, at this point, arguably the richest, most powerful, family in central Italy. Margherita used her dowry and inheritance to support her charitable works. She deposited alms, restored family churches, and gave to those who most needed it, but discreetly so not to embarrass or draw attention to recipients. Her altruism was immeasurable and culminated, every year, with a feast in honour of St. John the Baptist for the poor and ill. It is said one year Christ and St. John themselves attended, disappearing when recognised. Margherita was held, unsurprisingly, in great esteem, and many began to follow her. 

Margherita suffered with an ulcer for many years. When she finally died, she was lauded as a saint in all lands held by the Colonna family; her relics venerated in the Castel’s church. Unfortunately, the family fell out of favour in 1297, when Pope Boniface VIII accused Giacomo and his nephew, Pietro, of heresy and excommunicated them. He desecrated all ecclesiastical institutions associated with the Colonna, deposed their cardinals, and confiscated their ancestral properties. He had Margherita’s shrine destroyed and her family barely managed to escape the Castel with her body. 

Two notable biographies have been written about Margherita: the first by her brother, Giovanni; and the second by Stefania, a Calrissian Abbess who succeeded Margherita as the head of their community. In 1847, Margherita was beatified by Pope Pius IX. Where canonisation requires two attested miracles and allows veneration of individuals by the Catholic Church as a whole, beatification only requires one attested miracle, recognition of the dead’s entrance into Heaven, and their capacity to intercede on behalf of those who choose to pray in their name. 

Oddone Colonna, Pope Martin V (1369-1431)

The Western Schism was a political split in the Roman Catholic Church which began in 1378 and saw three men simultaneously claiming to be Pope. Though he began his papal career supporting two such antipopes – first Alexander V and then his successor, John XXIII – Oddone Colonna was unanimously elected Pope at the Council of Constance in 1417, ending the Schism. He took the name Martin V in honour of St. Martin on whose feast day he was elected. 

Pope Martin V’s first act was to remove the Papacy from its captivity in Avignon, France, returning it to Rome. While he lived in Florence a year, he commissioned the restoration of the dilapidated Eternal City – reconstructing bridges, strengthening fortifications, and commissioning public structures. Martin V worked to advance papal interests and reinstate the authority of the curia as a whole. He began the process of recovering the papal states, rebuilding churches, and emphasising the rights of the church against the Crown, most importantly in England and Spain. 

By decree, the Council which ended the Schism was to be held every five years. When Pope Martin V summoned it in 1423 – first in Pavia until plague broke out, then again in Siena – four decrees were published. Where the first was a postponement of negotiations with the Eastern Orthodox Church (which would later be reconvened as the Council of Florence), the other three were extensions of a bull Martin V released instructing all Christians to unite against heretics, specifically against the followers of Antipope Benedict XIII, Jan Hus (who had been burnt at the stake), and John Wycliffe (whose remains Martin V ordered to be dug up and burned). 

Martin V also worked to mediate the Hundred Years’ War between France and England and founded the University of Louvain in modern day Belgium.

Vittoria Colonna (1492-1547)

In 1501, the Colonna’s possessions and lands were once again confiscated, this time by Pope Alexander VI. The family moved to Ischia where Ferrante d’Ávalos lived. Upon the insistence of Ferdinand, King of Naples, Vittoria Colonna had been engaged from the age of three to Ferrante, the son of the Marquese di Pescara. They married in 1509, and while Ferrante was unfaithful and rarely in her company, all accounts suggest Vittoria had great influence over him. Ferrante was a captain for Emperor Charles V, and Vittoria not only kept him from joining the projected league against the Emperor after the Battle of Pavia but also had him refuse the Crown of Naples, offered as a prize for betraying the French.  

When Ferrante died in 1525, Vittoria attempted to enter the Convent at Santa Chiara. Pope Clement VII and her brother, Ascanio, blocked her attempts, however, forcing her to return to Ischia. They deemed her young enough to marry again and solidify a new political alliance, but Vittoria refused all suitors and dedicated herself to her writing. She published five books of poetry in her lifetime and another nine were published posthumously. 

Vittoria was a magnanimous figure. She sought to make up for the wrongs of her late husband, going as far as restoring families to lands he had seized. During the Sack of Rome, she offered to help both the Pope and the Roman people. Throughout her life, she advocated for religious form, though she herself was never a Protestant. 

She also left an indelible mark on other creatives, having hosted a literary court which included well known figures such as Pietro Bembo, Luigi Alamanni, Baldassare Castiglione, and Marguerite de Navarre. She offered sanctuary to Paolo Giovio, who completed his unpublished Dialogus de Viris ac Foeminis Aetate Nostra Florentibus, and in which he included ten pages in praise of Vittoria. Her cousin, Cardinal Pompeo Colonna, dedicated his Apologia Mulierum to her, being a treatise arguing that women ought to share public office. 

Most notably, however, was her relationship with Michelangelo Buonarotti. They were said to have spent long hours in each other’s company, with Michelangelo addressing many of his sonnets and drawings to her. Vittoria even gifted him a manuscript of spiritual poetry. 

Marcantonio II Colonna (1535-1584)

Marcantonio II Colonna began his path as the rebellious son of a family who quickly became disreputable. The Colonna were in financial ruin and had been exiled, and Marcantonio’s father – who had disinherited him – had an aggressive streak which resulted in his properties and titles being confiscated by Pope Paul III. 

By 1562, Marcantonio had reclaimed his family fiefs and settled into the roles of Duke of Tagliacozza, and Duke and Prince of Paliano. He married Felicia Orsini, a daughter of the Colonna’s enemy, and the great-granddaughter of Pope Julius II. 

He is remembered as one of the greatest captains of the 16^th century – both on land and in sea. He was, for a year, the commander of the Spanish cavalry in the war against Siena. His most significant achievement, however, came seventeen years later at the Battle of Lepanto. He was made Captain General of the papal flagship, the Capitana, against the Moors. When the flagship of Commander Don John of Austria, the illegitimate son of Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, was almost taken by Turkish infantry known as janissaries, Marcantonio launched a counterattack, bringing the Capitana up beside Don John’s Real, boarding the ship, and pushing the Turks not only off the Real but their own ship, the Ali Pasha. The Turkish crew was killed, and the Holy League banner hoisted up on their mast as a signal of victory.  This event solidified his military reputation and earned him the title of Captain General of the Church by Pope Gregory XIII. 

Captain General was not the only title he received. Five years later, King Philip II of Spain named Marcantonio the Viceroy of Sicily. It was after this that an annual feast was launched in his honour. Known as the Sagra dell’uva, the feast still takes place today in Marino, just South of Rome. The Italian Navy also has a patrol ship named for him.

Costanza Colonna (1556-1626)

Marcantonio did more than just marry an Orsini to repair his reputation. He also arranged for his daughter, Constanza, to marry the Marchese of Caravaggio, tying the Colonna to aristocracy in the peninsular and stretching their reach to Lombardy. The groom?  Francesco I Sforza. By all accounts, the marriage between the twelve- and seventeen-year-olds was not a happy one. Costanza threatened suicide if her family did not free her from the match. Marcantonio seems to have interceded, trying to have her enter a convent with Cardinal Carlo Borromeo (whose sister was married to Constanza’s brother, Fabrizio), but hostilities between the couple soon ended and Constanza remained with her husband, bearing six sons over the course of their marriage. 

Costanza would develop deep ties with the Lombard art scene. While Marcantonio was at the Battle of Lepanto, a son was born to her steward. They named him Michelangelo, and her and her sons would watch over him for his entire life. In fact, she would become his first patroness, for this Michelangelo Merisi would become better known to the world as Caravaggio. 

Francesco Sforza died when Constanza turned 27.  Now a widow, she asked Cardinal Borromeo twice if he would give permission for her to enter the Convent of San Paolo Converso with her daughters, sending her sons to Rome under the tutelage of their uncle. Her request was rejected both times, likely because she was considered young enough to still be marriageable. Constanza was granted permission to read the bible in the vernacular. Widowhood also allowed her to travel, and she and her children took trips to Genoa and Milan, and a pilgrimage to Rome and Loreto. 

Most famously, Costanza saved the life of Caravaggio. In 1606, Caravaggio was responsible for the death of Ranuccio Tomassoni. The artist’s contacts in Rome were unable to shield him from the consequences of this infraction and a price was put on his head. He took refuge at the Colonna Palace and then smuggled out of Rome to Costanza. Her son, Fabrizio Sforza Colonna, helped Caravaggio gain the support of the Grand Master of the Knights of Malta, Alof de Wignacourt. She later arranged for Caravaggio to leave Sicily and return to Naples, and worked with Scipione Borghese, the papal nephew, to obtain Caravaggio’s pardon from the Pope in Rome (though he would not live long enough to retrieve it). 

A Final Note

In the thirty-one generations since the Colonna family first settled on the slopes of the Quirinal Hill in the 1200s, the family has seen a myriad of illustrious individuals: 

• Piero, son of Gregory III Count of Tusculum, nicknamed Piero de Columna after his property, the Columna Castle in the Alban Hills, giving the family their name;

• Prospero, whose allegiance to Charles VIII during his invasion of Italy saw him imprisoned in the Castel Sant’Angelo by Pope Alexander IV;

• Anna, Princess of Palestrina, whose marriage to Taddeo Barberini made her one of the most powerful women in Rome and its surrounding Papal States; 

• Ascanio, Italian Ambassador during the Second World War, who gave the declaration of war to President Roosevelt. 

What truly makes the Colonna unique is their ability to return from the brink of complete destruction. They found triumph despite being exiled, stripped of titles and properties, forced into unhappy marriages, or even thrown into the middle of a war. Like their namesake, they stand tall, upright, supporting each other as well as others, and are not so easily broken. It is little wonder they are one of the few original Renaissance families remaining today.  

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