The Duke whose name stirred the Papal States and Tuscany
Alfonso Piccolomini of Santa Fiora – Duke of Montemarciano. A Sienese patrician and Count Palatine, he was lord of Montemarciano, Camporsevoli, and Porrona. Known also as the “King of the Maremma,” the “Wild Man,” and “The Priest of Guercino,” he was a nephew of Niccolò Orsini.
Born: 1558 ca.
Death: 1591, March
| Year, Month | State, mercenary company | Opponent | Command | Area of activity | Actions undertaken and other salient facts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1558/1574 | Lazio | Of the Piccolomini Todeschini branch. Born in the palace of the Sforza of Santa Fiora, his relatives. He became Duke of Montemarciano at the age of sixteen upon the death of his father Giacomo. | |||
| 1576/1577 | Umbria Tuscany | His restless and violent character soon showed itself in frequent conflicts with members of the Baglioni family of Perugia. In mid-February 1576, under the protection of the Duke of Urbino, Francesco Maria II della Rovere, a marriage contract was stipulated with the daughter of Ludovico della Mirandola, Ippolita. The dowry amounted to 39,000 scudi. Soon Montemarciano became a refuge for the brigands who infested the Papal States. Pope Gregory XIII warned him not to host wanted men on his lands. He moved to Tuscany. Grand Duke Francesco I de’ Medici protected him also for the fear caused by his ties with the Sienese nobility. In 1577 he presented himself in Siena and was imprisoned for a few months by the governor Federico da Montauto. Freed, he went to Pienza, where he was welcomed in triumph. He boasted kinship ties that allowed him to enjoy the protection of many Roman barons such as the Colonna and the Orsini of Pitigliano, to whose branch his mother belonged. | |||
| 1578/1580 | Umbria Marche Lazio Emilia Tuscany | In February he married Ippolita della Mirandola in Pesaro in the presence of his uncle Scipione Piccolomini and the Duke of Urbino Francesco Maria II della Rovere. It was in this period that Piccolomini also turned into a brigand. He availed himself of the services of Pietro Leoncelli (Petrino da Spoleto), another fearsome bandit who carried out his activity in the Umbrian countryside and on the border with the Marche. He was thus now able to settle accounts with the Baglioni. He sacked various villages and killed anyone who opposed his fury. He went to Mirandola in order to take revenge for some wrongs. He also carried out punitive actions in the Marche against personal enemies such as the sacking of Montalboddo (Ostra) to punish in his own way Pier Conte Gabuzio, guilty of having denounced him before the pontiff. He entered the town, occupied the main square, attacked the Gabuzio palace and killed Pier Conte’s brother there. 8 other members of this family were killed: only Pier Conte was saved because he was absent at the time of the attack. In the spring of 1579 Piccolomini was banished from the papal territories for having taken prisoner a knight of the family of the governor of Ancona and for having killed, in the circumstance, 3/4 policemen. A bounty of 4000 scudi was placed on his head. Gregory XIII proceeded to the sequestration of Montemarciano. In mid-November the pontifical troops, led by Commissioner Antonio Maria Retica, left Jesi, arrived at Montemarciano at night, surrounded the castle, and, after killing the sentinels, broke into it without finding resistance. The fortress was sacked and demolished. The damage suffered in the sacking by Piccolomini was estimated by contemporaries at 200,000 scudi. As a consequence, a heterogeneous mass of individuals, common criminals, starving peasants, exiles, unemployed soldiers reached the duke in Cortona, where he was at the time. With these, about 200 units, he moved continuously. He went to Val d’Orcia in his fiefdom of Camporservoli; finally, he took refuge in the Venetian territory. | |||
| 1581 | |||||
| Summer | Marche and Lazio | In May he returned to the Marche. At the beginning of the summer he sacked Ascoli Piceno; in the action the governor of the city Orazio Marziari was killed. After a clash with the troops of Latino Orsini, he stormed the Franciscan convent of Brogliano; in a village near Senigallia he had some adversaries who had not respected his orders slaughtered in the presence of their mothers and wives. His intention was to return to his fiefdom of Montemarciano in order to check the harvesting work and possibly set fire to the crops. He was excommunicated; the soldiers who had to face him refused to carry out orders; to hunt him down, many foreign mercenaries had to come from Rome. Even Latino Orsini, who was sent against him with infantry and horses, could not cope with his raids. He was surprised by his adversaries in the Macerata area in Sefro while he was having dinner in an old farmhouse with his company. He managed to repel the attackers following a fierce clash. Piccolomini took refuge in Colfiorito, pursued by the pontificals; following a bitter clash many bandits remained on the ground. He fled; he approached near Civitavecchia; at the end of July he stormed the Tolfa alum mines; he reached Rome, Ponte Milvio and Porta Prima. In August he remained in that territory in order to reinforce his band (brought to 300 men) and to attack the lands of Latino Orsini. In this period he could always count on the help of the Grand Duke of Tuscany Francesco de’ Medici, who used his agent in Rome, Antonio Serguidi, to deal with Giacomo Boncompagni and avoid the sequestration of the brigand’s assets. | |||
| ……….. | Tuscany | In September he presented a petition to the Pope to be forgiven and to be able to regain possession of the fiefdom of Montemarciano. To resolve the situation, the pontiff agreed with the Grand Duke of Tuscany that Alfonso Piccolomini should retire to Pienza in Tuscany with the promise of the restitution of his assets, already confiscated, on the condition that he never set foot in the Marche again. | |||
| 1582 | |||||
| …………. | Lazio | In January the Pope had Cardinal Ferdinando de’ Medici delivered, through Cardinal Carlo Borromeo, the order to Piccolomini to go to Rome. Cardinal Niccolò Sfondrati also convinced him to obey. In April he entered Rome, led by his relative Paolo Sforza; he was accompanied by 50 noble knights and a large crowd of people. The cavalcade headed towards Trinità dei Monti; it stopped at the palace of Cardinal de’ Medici, where he was hosted. Here he awaited the papal brief that absolved him of all homicide. 370 were the confessed murders; in one year the pontificals had spent 70,000 scudi to no avail. To show the pontiff that he had changed, he eliminated the band of Alcibiade, another well-known bandit, as he had previously done with Pietro Leoncelli, luring him alone with deception and taking the members of the latter’s band (120 men) with him. He was pardoned; he obtained the solemn blessing; he was placed on the condition of leaving the Papal States and going to France to face the Huguenots. He was offered command of the troops stationed in Avignon, as well as the revocation of the excommunication. | |||
| 1583 | Tuscany and Lazio | From Rome he went as agreed to Pienza. At the beginning of June he captured the bandit Claudio del Ciuccio and his men on the Paglia river, because they had robbed some friars at the Centeno bridge near Acquapendente a few days before. The prisoners were taken to Radicofani to be executed or imprisoned there. Cardinal Carlo Borromeo, on behalf of Pope Gregory XIII, asked Cardinal de’ Medici to put pressure on Piccolomini to leave Italy to go and fight the Turks. Alfonso Piccolomini substantially refused the request; he adduced as an excuse the lack of money to prepare a good company of soldiers; he promised that, once he had recovered from an economic point of view, he would have done penance for past mistakes and that he would have reconciled with the Church by going to serve in the galleys against the Ottomans. | |||
| 1584 | |||||
| Nov. | France | Huguenots | France | At the invitation of the Duke of Joyeuse he fought in France in the Wars of Religion. | |
| 1585 | |||||
| Aug. | France | Tuscany Marche Piedmont France | He returned to Italy thanks to Cardinal de’ Medici who interceded in his favor. In Florence and in Montemarciano. The Duke of Urbino, for fear of reprisals by the pontificals, denied him the possibility of being able to reside in the fortress of Pesaro. He returned to France; he was appointed lieutenant of the Duke of Joyeuse in the Marquisate of Saluzzo; he received 12,000 scudi from the king and a pension of 3,000 ducats. Duke Henry of Guise introduced him to the court of Catherine de’ Medici, with whom he complained of the wrongs suffered by the Duke of Joyeuse. He was entrusted with the task of recruiting militias in Italy. At the papal throne now was no longer Gregory XIII, but the Marchigiano Felice Peretti with the name of Sixtus V. | ||
| 1586 | Florence | Exiles | Tuscany | He frequently stayed in Pienza. He served the Grand Duke of Tuscany and in May he faced some exiles in the Sienese area. The new Pope Sixtus V, in October, absolved him and freed his assets from confiscation. | |
| 1587/1589 | Tuscany Lombardy | In mid-October Grand Duke Francesco de’ Medici died mysteriously; the Medici protection in his favor thus failed. The new Grand Duke Ferdinando realized that Piccolomini, because of his relations with the Sienese nobility, could represent a danger to his state. In the first months of 1589 he became the enemy to be defeated. He left Tuscany without warning; he was reported in Milan. He was enjoined not to return to the Grand Duchy except with prior authorization. The crops of his lands and the related livestock were seized from him. | |||
| 1590 | |||||
| Apr. Oct. | Marche Romagna Tuscany Emilia Lazio | In April, the pressure of the bands of brigands became stronger in the Marche, in Ascoli Piceno, where Spain contributed to fomenting the unrest. Piccolomini gathered soldiers in the Milanese area, in Mirandola, apparently destined for the French front; in reality these fueled his ranks and were used by the Spaniards to put pressure on the Pope. Negotiations were started between the Medici and the pontificals in order to collaborate together in his capture. The Medici asked the allies to be able to enter the Papal States in order to arrest or kill him. Venice also placed a bounty of 10,000 ducats on his head and the remission from the ban for 5 exiles, fearing that he would join the company of Marco Sciarra. In mid-June the Duke of Montemarciano was in the Pistoia area; he retreated towards Romagna after sacking Pietramala and Fiorenzuola. At the end of the month Grand Duke Ferdinando de’ Medici placed a bounty of 20,000 scudi on his head if captured alive, of 10,000 if delivered dead. In early July he was sentenced to death in absentia. Meanwhile, the conclave took place which led to the election of Pius V. Spain still used Piccolomini; he left the Piacenza area; he was in Montemarciano; he went to the Kingdom of Naples to put pressure on the college of cardinals. He entered Rome in a carriage; he was protected by the Colonna; he was hosted in his palace by Count Enrique de Olivares, ambassador of Spain. The latter obtained him a credential of 12,000 ducats to be collected in Venice. He returned to Montemarciano. In August, his wife, who was in Florence, complained to the captains of the Guelph party about the financial situation she was in. In October he moved to Lazio; he connected with the band of Battistello da Fermo; together they acted in the vicinity of Rome, at La Storta, at Prima Porta and at Malagrotta. He always enjoyed some influential support like the one provided to him by the Colonna. The extreme mobility and the cunning tricks (sometimes he used a double, Giovanni Paolo da Brescia) made it difficult for the papal authorities to locate him. Actions and looting in the Roman countryside intensified; he headed towards Ceri to receive instructions from Count Olivares. He defeated Bisaccione; he managed to break through the enemy lines and ford the Tiber. He joined another famous brigand in Caprarola, Marco Sciarra. The two gathered about 500 brigands. | |||
| Dec. | Lazio Tuscany Umbria Marche | Pius V died and Cardinal Niccolò Sfondrati (Gregory XIV) was elected. His downward parabola began. At first he found refuge in Pitigliano with Alessandro Orsini, once his enemy. The papal authorities gave permission to the grand-ducal troops to enter the territories of the Papal States to fight him. Piccolomini began to be abandoned by some followers such as Niccolò della Genga and Tiberio Cauli. At the beginning of the month, with a following of more than 500 men, he rode with Battistello da Fermo and Marco Sciarra. He subjected the lands crossed to fire and sword. He set fire to the inn of Monterosi, where 1000 rubbia of wheat were stored in the warehouses and 80 head of cattle in the stables. A farmhouse belonging to the sister of the late Pope Sixtus V was also set on fire. He was informed that Sciarra was besieged nearby by his adversaries at the Olgiatti farmhouse near Rome. He decided to intervene to help him. The pontifical militias, led by Virginio Orsini and the Tuscan ones under the orders of Camillo del Monte in Santa Maria, clashed with the brigands and managed to break their ranks. The bandits managed to break the encirclement at night, escaping. Virginio Orsini and del Monte were wounded in the clash in Santa Maria. With Marco Sciarra he headed towards the Tolfa mountains; he camped in Villa San Giovanni in Tuscia. He had 450 men with him. He clashed again with Bisaccione; he opened a gap towards salvation at Barbarano Romano by entering an inextricable thicket. On Christmas Eve he stopped in Contignano where he separated from Sciarra. He was always pursued by the grand-ducal troops even in the Papal States. He attempted to escape, while many of his men left his ranks. Through the mountains of Norcia he managed to reach the Marche with Battistello da Fermo. | |||
| 1591 | |||||
| Jan. | Romagna | Bisaccione was always on his heels; he reached Cattolica where he separated from the bulk of the band. He headed for Rimini with about thirty men. He stopped near the convent of the Dominican friars of Santa Maria delle Grazie. He was surprised here by the Grand Ducals; he saved himself in the territory of Cervia: he proposed to cross the Savio to join 150 brigands who were waiting for him on the other side. In the meantime, he was also abandoned by Battistello da Fermo. He decided to surrender because he had no escape. He stopped with 3 companions in a farm called Inferno, in the domains of the Marquis of Bagno. He surrendered to the Grand Ducals. Bisaccione led him to Forlì with 300 infantrymen from his company. He was imprisoned in that city. Bitter contrasts arose between the Tuscan court and the pontifical authorities over the competence of who should judge him. The governor of the city Pompeo Sperelli claimed in vain the right to detain the prisoner. Bisaccione had him forcibly taken to Florence. In the middle of the month he entered Florence through the Porta della Croce. | |||
| Mar. | Tuscany | He was subjected to a closed-door trial; he was accused of having killed 600 people and caused damage in the Grand Duchy alone for more than a million scudi. He was continually tortured. After two months in prison, on a night in mid-March, he was taken to a chapel without shackles or chains out of respect for his noble status. He was hanged in the afternoon at the tower of the Palazzo del Bargello. At the time of the execution he showed no sign of repentance. He was buried in the church of the Neri in Borgo la Croce, outside Porta San Francesco, a building destroyed in 1700. Montemarciano was granted by Pope Gregory XIV to his nephew Ercole Sfondrati. |
Sources
-“Mantiene sempre un comportamento impeccabile. Dovunque va tratta modestissimamente, ricercando i fattori de gentiluomini per cortesia di essere alloggiato et ricevere da mangiare per sé et per li cavalli, et quando va all’osteria, che vi va di rado, paga ciò che piglia et non permette che si faccia danno in luogo alcuno.” Citazione riportata da P. STACCIOLI
-“Qui giace Alfonso, e il fausto e l’alterezza/ Sua, che turbò Gregorio, el fuoruscito/ Corse le Marche, e depredò quel lito/ Con genti al sangue e alle rapine avvezza./ Quando l’Etruria, a sdegno, e quella Altezza/ Morse, a cui fu di ribellarsi ardito/ Taglieggiò il Latio, al fin preso e schernito/ Perdé ciò che fra di noi più s’ama, e apprezza/ O del instabil Dea raro e mirando/ Esempio, quei che del suo nome piena/ Havea tutta l’Italia e pieno il mondo/ Drento a l’alma città che i Toschi affrena/ Dal ferro sì famoso e memorando /Pender si vede, vergognoso pondo.” Da un sonetto composto per la sua morte riportato da P. STACCIOLI
-La sua “Inafferrabile mobilità lo rendeva pericoloso, ma lo circondava agli occhi dei suoi seguaci e delle popolazioni anche di un colore di mistero e di gloria…I contemporanei vedevano nelle azioni di Alfonso Piccolomini la naturale vendetta per le offese recategli dal pontefice e ne giustificavano la violenza. Tuttavia, attorno al conflitto fra il papa e il bandito si evidenziarono sia le rivalità nobiliari e la disordinata resistenza nei confronti della politica di controllo del territorio perseguita dai pontifici sia i più complessi equilibri fra Papato, i Medici e la Spagna. Il cardinale Ferdinando de’ Medici si serviva di Piccolomini per premere su Gregorio XIII, che accettò di trattare con il bandito.” FOSI
-“Era generoso con gli amici, ma non perdonava gli avversari neppure se gli fosse tornato comodo farlo. E la sua ardimentosa figura di cavaliere invincibile colpiva la fantasia dei contadini come quella dei potenti…(Al momento della sua morte) Il condannato indossava una pelliccia grigia con calze rosse e pianelle di panno nero. Venne impiccato al ferro che sporgeva per quell’uso all’esterno del palazzo e rimase a penzoloni per circa cinque ore. Poi, quando scese la notte, fu infine tirato giù e raccolto dalla “Compagnia dei Neri” che avevano all’epoca il compito di assistere i condannati a morte.. Trasportarono il corpo, steso su una lettiga, nella loro chiesa detta del Tempio da uno spedale dei Templari, situata in via di Borgo La Croce presso l’omonima porta della città.” BENADUSI MARZOCCA
.”Preferì volgere le armi delle Compagnie di ventura ad imprese di vero e proprio brigantaggio.” ARGEGNI
Specific Biographies
-P. Benadusi Marzocca. Il duca bandito. Vita e morte di Alfonso Piccolomini, duca di Montemarciano.
-M. Sciarra. Marco Sciarra “Regem Campaniae”. La storia, le imprese e la vita di uno dei briganti più famosi del 1500. Tra storia e leggenda.
