Jacopo Caldora and the Rise of a Feudal Empire in the Kingdom of Naples

The Caldora family is of Provençal origin (Candole or Candolle being the original surname). One of its branches relocated to Italy in the retinue of Charles I of Anjou, determined to conquer southern Italy at the expense of the Swabians. With the success of that undertaking, over the course of 150 years the various members of the house managed to build one of the most extensive seigneurial estates in the Kingdom of Naples. From the first possessions granted by the Angevin sovereign to the family (Pietraferrazzana, Villa Santa Maria, Civitaluparella, Fallo), the acquisitions reached, by the early fifteenth century, 56 fiefs located in the Abruzzi, Molise, Apulia and Campania, subdivided in turn into duchies, marquisates, counties and baronies. The house produced valiant condottieri and captains of fortune, among them Jacopo Caldora.

The most celebrated member of the family, he could boast the following titles: Duke of Andria and of Bari; Marquis of Vasto; Count of Acquaviva delle Fonti, encompassing the lordships of Agnone, Albe, Arce, Aversa, Capurso, Celano, Conversano, Copertino, Martina Franca, Monteodorisio, Noci, Nola, Pacentro, Palena, Rutigliano, Trivento and Valva; Baron of Carapelle Calvisio with the lordships of Anversa degli Abruzzi, Ascoli Satriano, Barrea, Belmonte del Sannio, Bitonto, Campo di Giove, Capestrano, Carbonara, Carovigno, Carpinone, Castel del Giudice, Castellana Grotte, Castiglione Messer Marino, Civitaluparella, Colledimacine, Dogliola, Frisa, Latiano, Lettopalena, Loseto, Manfredonia, Minervino Murge, Monteferrante, Montenerodomo, Ortona, Palmoli, Pizzone, Roccaspinalveti, Salpi, San Buono, Santa Maria del Molise, Serracapriola, Tollo, Trani, Valenzano and Villetta Barrea; not counting temporary appointments such as the governorship of L’Aquila or the office of Grand Constable. Born into the service of the Kingdom of Naples, the Caldora became at once its pillar and adversaries of its central authority, navigating with cynical flexibility between Angevins and Aragonese, between papal forces and various states of the north. Their decline was progressive and unstoppable, brought about by the final victory of King Alfonso of Aragon: with Antonio Caldora, the greatness accumulated by his father Jacopo crumbled under the weight of defeats, confiscations and exile, until it was definitively extinguished with the following generation. The Italian branch of the house died out in Piedmont in 1552 with Berlingieri III, who died without heirs while crossing the river Stura di Demonte.

JACOPO CALDORA (Giacomo Candola) URL: https://condottieridiventura.it/jacopo-caldora-mercenary-leader-and-controversial-figure/

From Castel del Giudice. Son of Giovanni Antonio and Rita Cantelmi. Brother of Raimondo and Restaino; one of his sisters married Riccardo Accrocciamuro. Father of Antonio, Jacopo and Maria; the last named was successively the wife of Giosia Acquaviva, of Francesco Sforza (a marriage annulled in 1430 by Pope Martin V) and of Troiano Caracciolo. Jacopo married Medea d’Eboli (who brought him the county of Trivento as her dowry) and Jacovella da Celano (who brought the lordship of Capestrano as her dowry). 1369 – November 1439

Count of Trivento, Duke of Bari, Marquis of Vasto, Count of Monteodorisio, lord of an imposing number of territories in the Abruzzi, Molise, Campania and Apulia, Jacopo Caldora was the founder of the family’s greatness and the most capable condottiere of the lineage. Appointed chamberlain by Ladislaus of Anjou in 1392, he alternated phases of loyalty to the Kingdom of Naples with open rebellions, switching sides with ease in the conflict between Angevins and Aragonese according to the logic characteristic of the great barons of the time. He fought alongside Muzio Attendolo Sforza and Braccio da Montone, and against both; he was captured in 1417 and imprisoned in Naples; upon his release, he returned to action. His most celebrated military exploit, as captain general, was the Battle of L’Aquila in June 1424, where he defeated Braccio da Montone in an engagement during which he was twice unhorsed, each time managing to escape capture. Thanks to this victory he was appointed Grand Constable of the Kingdom. In the following years he entered the service of Pope Martin V, operating in the Marches, Umbria and Emilia; between 1428 and 1430 he kept Bologna under siege for months, bombarding the city and devastating the surrounding countryside with merciless methods. On the death of Joanna II of Anjou in 1435 he remained loyal to the cause of René of Anjou against Alfonso of Aragon, conducting operations in Apulia and Campania, until illness forced him to delegate command to his sons Berlingieri and Antonio. He died in November 1439 from a general haemorrhage or an apoplectic attack; his solemn funeral rites were held in Sulmona at the church of Santo Spirito. Instructive are the assessments of his figure, whether expressed by the Italian Ercole Ricotti in his Storia delle compagnie di ventura in Italia or those of the German Everard Gothein in Il Rinascimento nell’Italia meridionale. “The most powerful baron and condottiere of his time… A strong and magnanimous captain, of majestic bearing and fine stature; he spoke with grace, indeed with an eloquence surpassing the merely military, and he was no slight admirer and practitioner of letters… Moreover, whether on account of his fame or of his power, Caldora had a flourishing school of captains who were not only valiant but noble and wealthy in money and lordships: an Antonio and a Raimondo, one his son and the other his kinsman, a Paolo di Sangro, a Raimondo Anichino, a Carlo di Campobasso.” (Ricotti.) “Caldora surpassed the others in renown for chivalric spirit and magnanimity. He certainly had no need… to seek his livelihood by serving now this, now that state; having inherited great power… he was able from the outset to pursue a policy of his own. He became in time a formidable warrior, and condottieri of his school spread throughout Italy and won honour; yet he never waged a war that was not in his immediate interest.” (Gothein.) Caldora was a condottiere of exceptional mettle, idolised by his soldiers, and proud to the point of scornfully refusing every honorific title other than the one encapsulated in the family motto Coelum coeli Domino, terram dedit filiis hominum: heaven belongs to the Lord of heaven, but the earth was given to those most capable of making themselves its masters.

ANTONIO CALDORA (Antonio Candola) URL: https://condottieridiventura.it/antonio-caldora/ (in Italian)

From Trivento. Son of Jacopo and Medea d’Eboli. Brother of Jacopo (father of Giovanni Antonio). He married Caterina d’Eboli, Isabella Caracciolo and Margherita di Lagny. Father of Restaino. c. 1400 – c. 1466

Count of Trivento, Duke of Bari, Marquis of Vasto and of Bitonto, lord of Aversa, Carpinone, Conversano, Pacentro, Vasto and numerous other territories, Antonio inherited from his father both titles and domains, and in certain respects his military talent, though certainly not his political acumen. Given as a hostage in 1416 to Queen Joanna II of Anjou by his father, he took part in the Battle of L’Aquila in 1424 commanding the sixth column. He was appointed Viceroy of Abruzzo in 1437 by Isabella of Anjou, wife of René, who was at that moment a prisoner of the Duke of Burgundy Philip the Good, held in the gaol of Talent near Dijon. In that capacity he proved chronically indecisive; the same behaviour was apparent with the arrival in Italy of the King of Provence: often slow to act and, above all, inclined to change sides at the least opportune moment. In 1440 he was arrested during a banquet offered to him by René of Anjou; once released, he was sent to the Abruzzi. Within a matter of months he deserted to the Aragonese camp and obtained from the opposing sovereign, Alfonso of Aragon, confirmation of a reduced number of fiefs. He continued to oscillate between the factions in the following decades as well: in 1459 he rebelled again against the King of Naples Ferrante of Aragon, supporting the attempt by John of Anjou to reconquer the kingdom on behalf of his Provençal family. Defeated in 1461 by Alessandro Sforza, he held out in the fortress of Vasto until 1464. Captured in 1465 following an internal revolt, he was imprisoned in Castel Nuovo in Naples; he emerged from prison alive thanks to the intercession of Francesco Sforza; he was banished from the kingdom and stripped of all his lordships. He sought refuge in Baia, in Rome, in Viterbo; he ended up in Jesi, where he died in 1466 in the hut of a poor soldier who had served under his father. His end marked the dissolution of the family patrimony: the greater part of the lands in the Sangro valley were assigned to Matteo di Capua. Unlike his father Jacopo, his defining trait was incoherence; his was a figure “perpetually wavering between the two sides and ready to betray all.” Vito Vitale (Trani dagli angioini agli spagnoli). A characterisation noted by both historians who were his contemporaries and by modern authors alike. “He resembled his father in valour as much as he differed from him in prudence.” Angelo di Costanzo (Istoria del regno di Napoli). “He had broken with Caldoresque custom and with the old friendships of the Angevins and the Sforzas, abandoning the former in great danger and giving the latter no military assistance. A dissembler, of variable and changeable nature, untrustworthy, ruinously hasty and reckless in taking sides, skilled in arms yet not enough to equal his father, bold and brave in danger, cast down in adversity.” N. F. Faraglia (Storia della lotta tra Alfonso V d’Aragona e Renato d’Angiò).

GIOVANNI ANTONIO CALDORA URL: https://condottieridiventura.it/giovanni-antonio-caldora/ (in Italian)

Son of Jacopo, brother of Antonio; a brother named Jacopo is explicitly mentioned when, in 1459, he shared a condotta of fifteen lances with him; father of Berlingieri II. He married Lucrezia Barile and Lucetta Suardi. Died c. 1500.

Count of Trivento, Baron of Monteodorisio, Giovanni Antonio was the grandson of Antonio. He was given as a hostage by his grandfather Antonio to King Alfonso of Aragon in 1441; in 1455 he challenged Ignacio de Guevara, Marquis of Vasto (formerly a Caldora fief), to a duel, after the latter had described the members of his house as traitors by definition. On that occasion it was King Alfonso himself who prevented the combat. He later joined his uncle Berlingieri II in the rebellion against Ferrante of Aragon, siding with the claimant to the Kingdom of Naples John of Anjou. At the end of the conflict (1464), with defeat and the loss of Monteodorisio, he followed Jacopo Piccinino into exile in Milan; he then entered Venetian service; he served in the company of Bartolomeo Colleoni and in 1467 took part in the Battle of Molinella. In 1477 he was defeated and captured by the Turks near Gradisca d’Isonzo together with a son; taken to Bosnia, he was released upon payment of a ransom of 3,200 ducats. In subsequent years he is recorded fighting in Tuscany, Romagna and Lazio, first in the service of the Serenissima and subsequently in that of the papacy, alternating, in keeping with family custom, between condotte and defections. In 1485 he joined the conspiracy of the barons against Ferrante of Aragon; pardoned, he was able to return to the Neapolitan court in 1492. He died in Naples around 1500.

BERLINGIERI II CALDORA URL: https://condottieridiventura.it/berlingieri-caldora/ (in Italian)

.Count of Monteodorisio, Berlingieri II Caldora is the last member of the family documented on the site. In 1464, still a child, he was forced to leave the Kingdom of Naples following the defeat of John of Anjou. He is recorded in Lombardy in the service of the Duke of Milan. In 1475, as a courtier, he received gifts of clothing from Galeazzo Maria Sforza; the following year he fought in the Canavese under his pay against the forces of the Bishop of Geneva, besieging Feletto at the head of a company of mounted crossbowmen. Having returned to the Kingdom of Naples, in 1485 he took part in the barons’ revolt against King Ferrante of Aragon; apparently pardoned, two years later, in 1487, he was summoned to Naples by the sovereign, his remaining fiefs were confiscated and he was imprisoned in Castel Nuovo. Released in 1492, he frequented court life. Between 1493 and 1494 he is recorded in Venetian service; in 1495 to 1496 he served the French in the Abruzzi against the Aragonese of Naples. He temporarily recovered the county of Monteodorisio, but lost it again shortly afterwards following the subsequent withdrawal from the Kingdom of Naples of the forces of Charles VIII. In 1497 he sought without success a condotta from the Serenissima; he moved to France. Returning to Italy in 1498, he entered the service of the Duke of Ferrara Ercole d’Este, being sent to France as his ambassador at the head of a retinue of thirty horsemen. This is the last record concerning him. died c. 1500.

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