Draft:Counts of Marsciano

Origins

According to the will of 1476 written by the mercenary captain Antonio di Marsciano, it was widely believed in his day that the family had originated from the Burgundian barbarians^[1].

The historian Ferdinando Ughelli suggests that this family traces its origins to the Cadolingi, tracing the family history back to Count Cadolo (10th century)^[2].

Modern historians, on the other hand, are more inclined to accept the theory that the family descends from the Counts of Chiusi, as indeed stated by Antonio di Marsciano himself in his will, according to which this information was passed down by his ancestors^[3].

11th and 12th centuries

The family’s history is traced from the 11th century to the year 1667 in the work of Ferdinando Ughelli, who also reconstructed its genealogy by means of a detailed family tree. Ughelli’s work was commissioned by Lorenzo di Marsciano.

Bernardo of Bulgarello is the progenitor of the family; in 1118, he was the first to receive the castle of Parrano – the family’s first Umbrian stronghold – as a fief from the Bishop of Orvieto. From there, his successors gradually and rapidly expanded into the area as far as Marsciano, occupying all the feudal estates in between, and thus forming a strategic ‘buffer’ between Orvieto and Perugia.

13th century

In 1235, Raniero of Bulgarello was elected podestà of Verona; he was subsequently appointed to the same office in Perugia in 1250 and in Florence in 1251.

By 1263, Bulgarello and Bernardino of Raniero were already occupying the castle of Poggio Aquilone; by 1273, they held the castles of Monteleone and Montegabbione, and are recorded as owning land in Castel di Fiori. In 1269, the two aforementioned individuals appear in a document with the epithet ‘di Marsciano’, which Ferdinando Ughelli highlights as the oldest source he has found in which this appellation appears.

In 1280, Nardo of Bulgaruccio, together with his brothers Nerio and Ugolino, entered into an agreement with Bernardino to divide the castles of Marsciano, Poggio Aquilone, Migliano, and Castel Vecchio in Val d'Orcia, the estates of S. Pietro in Sigillo and S. Croce, the Carnaiola estate, and the castle of Parrano. On April 15, 1281, Nardo, together with his brothers and his uncle Bernardino of Raniero, sold the castle of Marsciano to the municipality of Perugia for 5,000 lire, whilst retaining the title of Counts of Marsciano, which they held until modern times, as well as certain estates.

After selling the castle of Marsciano, Nerio of Bulgaruccio asked the Bishop of Orvieto in 1282 for permission to build a chapel near Montegiove where Mass could be celebrated. Permission was granted, and a church was built which is now known as La Scarzuola. Legend has it that Francis of Assisi stopped here and, using a branch from a marsh plant, the scarza, built a hut to live in. La Scarzuola evolved from a simple church into a convent, remaining under the patronage of the Counts of Marsciano for many centuries, and serving as the burial place for the family’s descendants until the 19th century^[4]. In 1283, following the death of his wife, Nerio became a friar of the Franciscan Third Order and lived in a habit of penance in his own home.

In 1296, Cello of Bernardino was podestà of Orvieto, a post he would later also hold in Todi.

14th century

In 1310, Bulgaruccio of Ugolino was elected Captain of the Guelph army of Todi. Highly esteemed by Duke Piero, brother of the King of Naples, who was passing through Tuscany to aid the Guelphs against the Pisans, he undertook a diplomatic mission on behalf of this sovereign to Orvieto to secure aid in the form of money and soldiers. Having gathered the necessary fighters, Bulgaruccio set off for Tuscany, where he took part in the Battle of Montecatini, only to be taken prisoner by the Ghibelline Captain Uguccione della Faggiola. Once taken prisoner to Pisa, the municipality ofPerugia intervened, sending an embassy to Orvieto to request a prisoner exchange. The Orvieto authorities agreed, but whilst the exchange was being negotiated, Bulgaruccio died in Pisa in September, imprisoned in the Torre della Fame, although there are conflicting accounts suggesting instead that he died in his family’s home.

In 1325, Tiberuccio di Lamberto, along with other members of the Marsciano family, led an army against the castle of Campiglia; the conflict came to an end three years later when Tiberuccio was included in the truce agreement signed between the parties.

In 1350, Bulgaro of Tiberuccio entered into an agreement with the municipality of Orvieto, under which he was obliged to pay 1,000 florins and to leave his brother Ugolino as a hostage until the sum due had been paid. In 1351, Ugolino managed to escape from prison, which angered the municipality, which organised an army against Bulgaro to destroy Castel Brandetto and La Badia d’Acqua Alta (now Castel di Fiori), his estates. The two brothers were attacked and subsequently banished from the territory of Orvieto. Bulgaro then decided to pay the debt he had incurred, and the ban was consequently revoked. Having made peace with the municipality of Orvieto, he became, in 1355, Constable of the Cavalry for that municipality.

Also in 1355, Bandino of Nerio of Nardo married Fiandina Monaldeschi and purchased Civitella della Montagna (now Civitella dei Conti) from the heirs of Leoncello di Fiordivoglia, the former lords of that castle.

Angeline of Marsciano, a nun and founder of the Franciscan Third Order Regular, was born in Montegiove in 1357; she was beatified on 8 March 1825 by Pope Leo XII.

In 1381, the brothers Piergiovanni and Ranuccio of Petruccio found themselves pitted against their cousins, the brothers Nicolò and Mariano di Jacopo, in the factional strife between the Muffati and Mercorini families in Perugia.

15th century

Manno of Piergiovanni was drawn into the conflicts between Perugia and Siena against Mantua; he came under attack at Poggio Aquilone from Giovanni Tarlati of Arezzo, known as ‘the German’, who was fighting on the Sienese side, forcing him to come out into the open under fire. From as early as 1395, Manno loyally sided with the Muffati, with whom, in 1434, he seized the castles of Monteleone and Montegabbione by force; these were held until 1437, and then returned to Orvieto upon the arrival of Cardinal Giovanni Maria Vitelleschi.

In 1400, the castle of Montegiove rebelled against Manno, who was forced to remain outside its walls for a long time. In 1409, Manno himself gifted the castle of Civitella dei Conti to the famous Perugian captain Ceccolino Michelotti, in a gesture that Ughelli describes as “ostentatious”.

Pier Giovanni’s warrior fought for many years alongside Gattamelata in the service of the Venetians. In 1434, as a cavalry captain, he was taken prisoner at Imola by Duke Filippo Maria Visconti of Milan. In 1473, he was sent by Gattamelata with three hundred horsemen and two hundred infantrymen to conquer Chiari in Val Camonica, and then to come to the aid of Brescia; he was subsequently victorious in the battle against the Milanese on the river Sarca. He married Arpalice Salimbeni, of the powerful Sienese family of the same name.

In 1436, Ranuccio of Manno was podestà of Rieti, and it was under his rule in 1452 that the Parrano rebellion broke out, during which the people drove the counts from the castle and divided up their possessions. The rebellion broke out again in 1454, and on this occasion the men of the castle, to prevent any possible return of the Marsciano family, offered the castle to Pier Ludovico Borgia, nephew of Pope Callixtus III. The counts then implored the pope not to deprive them of this fiefdom, given that their ancestors had built the castle itself three hundred years earlier. In 1455, the castle, temporarily held by the Cardinal Camerlengo, was finally recaptured by force by Ranuccio himself, aided by the people of Perugia.

In 1414, Uguccione of Bulgaro, together with his brother Ugolino and other members of the Marsciano family, fought on the side of King Ladislaus I of Naples; he served as Commissioner of the Royal Army during the capture of Rome, Orvieto and Viterbo. For these reasons, all pending lawsuits and convictions against him, brought by the people of Orvieto, were quashed. In 1436, Giovanni of Guido, one of the nobles of Seano, attempted to seize the castle of Rotecastello, of which Uguccione was lord.

On 20 December 1429, Antonio di Ranuccio di Manno was born in Migliano.^[5] From a young age, he was trained in the art of warfare by his uncle Guerriero di Marsciano and his maternal uncle Gentile di Leonessa, mercenary captains in the pay of the Venetian Republic, and by Erasmo da Narni, known as Gattamelata, a most famous and wealthy captain, also in the pay of Venice, who was destined to become his father-in-law. Gattamelata’s daughter, Todeschina, married Antonio at a young age.

Antonio fought for Venice and, in 1459, at the age of 30, became one of the three commanders of the “Lance Spezzate”, an elite corps; two years later, he became its sole commander – an extremely rare occurrence for Venice, which feared coups d’état by these powerful captains – a position he held throughout his service to the Serenissima. During this period, he fought mainly against Trieste, the Turks, and the Duchy of Milan. In 1483, Antonio was taken prisoner by the people of Ferrara and, for various reasons, had to switch sides to fight under Lorenzo de’ Medici. Florence was at odds with Genoa, and on 30 September 1484, during the siege of Pietrasanta, Antonio was killed by a piece of artillery. His body was taken to Pisa, where he was buried in the church of S. Michele fuori le mura (now the church of San Michele degli Scalzi).

In 1462, Ranuccio di Antonio was born in Sanguinetto, whilst his father was in the service of the Venetian Republic. Under the same Republic, he became a captain of infantry; in 1487 he went into the service of the Florentines; in 1494 he commanded 1,000 infantrymen and 200 men-at-arms; and shortly afterwards he was sent by Guido Baldo, Duke of Urbino, to confront the advance of Charles VIII, King of France, who was on a campaign to conquer the Kingdom of Naples, and on this occasion he defended Cortona. In 1498, Ranuccio was elected Governor of the Florentine Republic. Whilst in Pontedera, he heard the news that seven hundred knights and a thousand Pisan infantrymen had just plundered the Maremma region of Volterra and were returning to Pisa. On the advice of Guglielmo de' Pazzi, he set out to cut them off; at S. Regolo, he recovered part of the booty by fighting valiantly. However, 1,500 men from Pisa arrived, causing the Florentines to flee. In 1500, Ranuccio left the service of the Florentine Republic and briefly entered the service of Bologna. The following year, he entered the service of Frederick of Aragon, King of Naples, who granted him the title of Duke of Gravina and appointed him Governor-General in the military campaign against the French, with three hundred men-at-arms and three thousand infantrymen. During this conflict, he was taken prisoner in the city of Capua alongside Fabrizio Colonna and Ugo di Cardona, his comrades-in-arms. He died on 29 July 1501, that is, two days after his capture by the French, from an arrow wound, which some suspected had been poisoned on the orders of Duke Valentino, or Vitellozzo Vitelli, who wished to avenge the death of his brother Paolo, killed by Ranuccio’s own faction. Ranuccio had been married twice: first to Luisa Fregoso and subsequently to Giovanna di Roberto Malatesta.

In 1455, Nicolò di Baldino purchased the fortress of Mealla. In 1493, he was Captain of the Contado of Perugia, and three years later he recaptured the tower of Salce for the Municipality of Orvieto, which had been in the hands of Cesare Bandini of Città della Pieve. Whilst in the service of the Florentines, he married a member of the Medici family. He died in battle at Pisa in 1496, whilst serving under his cousin Ranuccio.

16th and 17th century

Ludovico di Antonio was born in 1471; in 1505, he was sent as ambassador for the municipality of Orvieto by Cardinal Farnese (later Pope Paul III). He served as Orvieto’s first Conservator on five occasions, and as a leading figure in the city. He fought under his brother Ranuccio for Florence from 1497 onwards, serving as a captain in the war against the Pisans. In 1515, he was summoned by Pope Leo X to serve under Giuliano de’ Medici. He died of the plague in 1526 in Viterbo.

Gaspare di Ludovico served as First Conservator in Orvieto in 1533, 1553, 1555 and 1563; in the latter year, he was appointed Confaloniere. He married Laura Spiriti, a noblewoman from Viterbo, and had six children with her. He served as a colonel in the War of Siena in 1553. He died in Orvieto in 1566. He was buried in Castel di Fiori in the peperino urn he had commissioned, in the church dedicated to St Mary Magdalene.

Ludovico di Gaspare followed in his ancestors’ footsteps, first fighting for the Pope in 1566 against the Huguenots in France; in 1570 he commanded three hundred lancers for the Venetians against the Turks; and in 1575 he served as Lieutenant General of four thousand infantrymen under Paolo Sforza, who in turn was a colonel under Philip II of Spain. In 1580 he became a cavalry colonel under Cardinal Alessandro Sforza, and in 1595 he was General of the Papal Army in Hungary, under Giovanni Francesco Aldrobrandini, nephew of the then Pope, where he received praise as an experienced and courageous soldier. He married Porzia Monaldeschi del Cane, with whom he had a son, Orazio, and subsequently Caterina Monaldeschi della Cervara, who was the maternal heir of Bartolomeo d'Alviano; from this latter marriage and the four children he had with this wife, the Marsciano family acquired the important fiefdom of Guardea. He was responsible for the completion of the Crispo-Marsciano palace in Orvieto (a building begun but not completed under the ownership of Tiberio Crispo, later purchased and finished by Ludovico di Marsciano, designed by Antonio da Sangallo the Younger; it is now the headquarters of the Tax Police). In 1600, Ludovico was recorded as co-baron of Parrano, but during the dispute that arose with Marcantonio Marescotti over joint ownership of the fiefdom, he was suspected of a series of crimes, including the murder of his first wife. He was not found guilty, but later that same year he died in Viterbo whilst preparing to accompany Maria de’ Medici on her journey to become the wife of Henry IV of France. He was buried in the church of S. Maria in Gradi, in the Spiriti family vault, which would later also become the resting place of some of his descendants. In Parrano, he was thus succeeded by his relative Ercole di Marsciano, but disputes with Marcantonio Marescotti led Ercole, along with his brother Baldino and two other accomplices, to kill Marcantonio Marescotti in September 1608 with two arquebus shots that pierced his chest. Following a three-month trial presided over by the Sabinian apostolic commissioner Torquato Marescotti, the two counts of Marsciano were sentenced to death and permanently lost possession of the fiefdom^[6].

Alessandro of Lodovico, page to Ferdinando I de' Medici and Cosimo II de' Medici, Grand Dukes of Tuscany, was awarded the Cross of St Stephen by the latter. He married Dianora Baglioni, with whom he had a son, Lorenzo di Marsciano, a learned botanist^[7], collector of the family’s historical documents and the person who commissioned the aforementioned work by Ferdinando Ughelli^[8]. Alessandro died in Rome in 1650 and was buried in the basilica di San Lorenzo in Lucina.

18th and 19th century

^[9]

Towards the end of the 17th century, the main branch of the family moved its principal residence to Modena, where Ludovico of Lorenzo di Marsciano (1654–1703) entered the permanent service of the Duke of Modena^[10]. All this whilst retaining their properties and interests in the Papal States: Lodovico’s brother, Ranuccio, a Monsignor, was in fact a cleric of the Apostolic Chamber and Prefect of the Signatura, and later became a canon of St Peter’s in the Vatican, not to mention that Lodovico himself married the Roman Countess Anna Maria Carcano Testa in 1690. His other brother, Bulgaro, was Captain of the Army of Campania and Sabina, and married the Roman Marquise Lucrezia Marcellini. With the next generation, which continued to reside in Modena, the family’s connections expanded into northern Italy, with Alessandro di Ludovico (1691–1758), General of the Hunts in the Duchy of Modena and Reggio, who married Countess Maria Renea Scotti of Piacenza (1694–1719) and later Countess Marianna Hercolani (1707–1788) of Bologna^[11], a Dame of the Order of the Starry Cross and later First Lady-in-Waiting at the court of Francesco III d'Este. His younger brother, Giuseppe di Marsciano (1696–1754), began his ecclesiastical career in Rome, later becoming Prelate of Honour to His Holiness, [[Count Palatine, Bishop of Orvieto in 1732, and subsequently Assistant to the Papal Throne. The heir to the family line, Lodovico (1730–1791), son of Alessandro, continued the tradition of marrying ladies from northern Italy by weding the Marquise Chiara Visconti (1748–1829) of Milan, whilst his sister Maria (1718–1792) married Count Giovanni Scotti in Sassuolo, Maria Teresa (1723–1803) to Marquis Giuseppe Montecuccoli of Modena, and Astorre (1731–1788) became Canon of [[San Giovanni in Laterano in Rome in 1756, Alfonso (1739–1796) and Giuliano (1741–1791) were both Knights of the Order of Malta, rising to hold important positions, particularly the former, who became Commander of Montecchio and Colonel of the Imperial troops. Lodovico’s son, Francesco (1771–1820), was still the owner of the Umbrian fiefdoms of Carnaiola, Guardea, Castel di Fiori and half of Montegiove in 1818. In the 1842 list of the province of Orvieto’s largest landowners, the estate of his heirs ranked third, behind the Marquis Paolo Antonio Viti and the Fabbrica del Duomo di Orvieto. His daughter Teodolinda married Count Luigi Simonetti, the Duke of Modena’s envoy to the Holy See, in 1830, whilst his son Castore (1811–1886), who inherited the fiefdom of Guardea from his father, married the Marquise Caterina Longhi di Fumone (1839–1885), with whom he had a daughter, Isabella (1864–1908). Alfonso (1796–1831), Francesco’s eldest son, a member of the Papal Noble Guard and Knight of the Legion of Honour of France, married Marianna Pappiani; from this union came Alessandro (1824–1902), a volunteer in the wars of the early Risorgimento, Luigi (1830–1906), Angelina (1828), and finally Isabella (1827–1898), who is known to have been in contact with the Bolognese patriot Augusta Tanari Malvezzi^[12].

Recent times

Contrary to what Vittorio Spreti erroneously states in the *Enciclopedia Storico Nobiliare Italiana*, the Marsciano family has not died out.

The Marsciano family currently live in Brivio, Lombardy ^[13]in the 18th-century palace built for the wedding of Count Luigi di Marsciano (1830–1906) and the Milanese Countess Antonietta Garulli Benedetti^[14], as well as in Tuscany, Rome and his native Umbria.

Early version

It is of the type known as ‘truncated’ with a fillet. In the first quarter, a gold field; in the second, three gold lilies arranged 2 and 1 on a red field. It appears for the first time in a document dated 1256.

Version with eagle

It differs from the previous one in that it features the imperial eagle, which was granted by Emperor Henry VII of Luxembourg, who travelled to Italy and was hosted by the Counts of Marsciano at Poggio Aquilone Castle in 1312.

Early version

It is of the type known as ‘divided in three bands’: in the first, gold, an eagle in black with a red beak and crowned, standing in the field; in the second, silver, three laurel wreaths or military braids in natural colour arranged in a band; in the third, red, three lilies in gold, two and one. Crest: a rearing horse.