A lordship built on loyalty to the Church and extinguished by Borgia violence

The da Varano, lords of Camerino: a dynasty of the Marche marked by loyalty to the Guelph cause, by the ability to withstand pressure from both popes and emperors, and by violent extinction at the hands of the Borgia family. History and biographies.

Camerino rises on the Apennine foothills between the Marche and Umbria, in a territory that in the Middle Ages forms a strategic junction between the Via Flaminia and the roads leading down toward the Kingdom of Naples. The da Varano, originally from the Duchy of Spoleto, established themselves as lords there from the second half of the thirteenth century, building over the course of nearly three centuries one of the longest lasting and most tenacious lordships in central Italy. The family name is tied to the homonymous castle of Varano, in the territory of Camerino, from which the family takes its origin and title. Unlike other great houses of the Marche or Romagna such as the Malatesta of Rimini or the Montefeltro of Urbino, the da Varano never achieved a regional scale large enough to make them autonomous protagonists of Italian politics: their strength was defensive in nature, founded on Guelph loyalty and local roots, on the ability to forge marriage alliances with the great families of central Italy, and on the capacity to survive family conspiracies, rebellions, and papal reprisals capable of wiping out less tenacious houses.

The family’s political identity took shape amid the struggles between Guelphs and Ghibellines that troubled the Marche between the end of the thirteenth century and the beginning of the fourteenth. It was with Berardo da Varano, at the end of the thirteenth century, that the house established itself as a leading Guelph power in the March of Ancona, developing that vocation for service to the Church which would mark the trajectory of many of his heirs, though alternated with frequent and unscrupulous changes of allegiance. With his sons Gentile, Giovanni, and Rodolfo, the house reached its first great territorial expansion, controlling an arc of land stretching from Camerino to Fabriano, from Tolentino to Macerata. The most critical moment coincided with the reorganization of the Papal States in the Marche carried out by Cardinal Egidio Albornoz in the 1350s: it was then that the da Varano demonstrated their ability to negotiate, obtaining the papal vicariates that legitimized their power in exchange for a loyalty that was never unconditional. A first blow to the vitality of the house came from internal wars, comparable to those that struck other lordly families such as the da Polenta or the Malatesta; the house’s final extinction, however, was the product of external violence, that of Cesare Borgia, who in October 1502 had Giulio Cesare da Varano strangled, followed by three of his sons. In a single stroke, the house that had ruled Camerino for over two centuries was wiped out. The branch that survived the Borgia massacre died out anonymously in the following decades, far from the Marche, caught up in the Italian Wars of the sixteenth century.

BERARDO DA VARANO (Guelph)

Son of Gentile, brother of Rodolfo. Father of Gentile, Giovanni, Rodolfo and Venanzio, uncle of Nuccio. He married Bellafiore di Brunforte and an Englishwoman named Galatea, belonging to the royal house of England.

Lord of Camerino, Berardo da Varano was the first member of the family to build a significant military and institutional presence outside the Marche. A committed Guelph, he fought from 1288 against the people of Foligno in the service of Perugia, obtaining the enemy’s surrender and the signing of a peace treaty. In 1291 Pope Niccolò IV placed Camerino under interdict because of his aggressive policy; the ecclesiastical measure (which forbade the faithful of a given territory from attending religious services and receiving the sacraments) was soon lifted in consideration of his substantial alignment with the Guelph cause. In the following decades he held the office of captain of the people in Camerino, Perugia, Pistoia, Florence, and Bologna, accumulating institutional experience that earned him recognition from the leading Guelph cities of central Italy. He distinguished himself in 1313 against the imperial forces of Henry VII in defense of the papal cause in the Marche. Still in support of his faction, in 1322 he helped the lord of Rimini Ferrandino Malatesta recover Fano; he conquered Osimo and Recanati. The latter town was put to the torch on the charge of idolatry, and its inhabitants were massacred, including infants in arms. He died in March 1329, leaving his sons a lordship already recognized and a political legacy oriented toward the Church. “For his prudence and valor he had acquired the greatest glory,” wrote Patrizio Savini in Storia della città di Camerino; “He was never the sole absolute lord of Camerino; he held the authority that his father and brother had held before him. As head of his party, nothing was done without his consent, and he never neglected any means to make the Guelph faction triumph, which made him rich and powerful,” wrote Ileana Tozzi in Le Marche dei Varano.

NUCCIO DA VARANO (Guelph)

Nephew of Berardo da Varano. A minor figure, useful for understanding the ramifications of the house, Nuccio da Varano was co-lord of Camerino and nephew of Berardo. His documented activity spans barely a decade: in 1314 he was podestà of San Ginesio; in 1318 he fought for Perugia against the Ghibellines who had driven the Guelphs out of Nocera Umbra; for his exploits he obtained the post of governor of Perugia with a monthly salary of 150 florins. In 1320 he came into conflict with Nocera Umbra over an occupied castle, involving the ambassadors of Perugia in the negotiations while at the same time demanding from the commune the back pay owed to him. He died in battle against the Ghibellines in 1322.

GENTILE DA VARANO (Guelph)

Son of Berardo, brother of Rodolfo, Giovanni and Venanzio. Lord of Camerino, Tolentino, San Ginesio, Belforte del Chienti, Visso, Cerreto d’Esi.

The eldest of Berardo’s sons, Gentile da Varano made his debut in 1312 as podestà of Florence, distinguishing himself in a victory over the Sienese. The following year he fought alongside his father against the imperial forces of Henry VII. In 1322 he was captain general of the papal troops and successfully opposed the Ghibellines in the Marche and in Umbria, managing to bring Lippaccio da Osimo and the lord of Fermo Mercenario da Monteverde over to the Guelph side; he also seized Matelica. He ostentatiously refused the title of imperial vicar offered to him by Louis the Bavarian. In 1326 he continued to oppose the Ghibellines together with other lords loyal to the papal cause. On his father’s death (1329) he took charge not only of Camerino but also of the surrounding territory, continuing the shrewd policy of dissimulation that, under the pretext of suppressing the Ghibelline faction, allowed him to gain effective control over the city government. He continued to oppose the imperial forces on behalf of the papacy and occupied Matelica. There followed a period of crisis in relations with the Holy See, until in 1342 he was reconfirmed in the vicariate of Camerino by Pope Clement VI (and by Emperor Louis the Bavarian). During this period he was called by the papal curia as a witness in the canonization process of the Augustinian friar Nicola da Tolentino. In 1353 his loyalty to the Papal States reached its peak when he received Cardinal Egidio Albornoz with full honors, having part of the walls of Camerino torn down for the occasion. “He was known for having served as podestà within the Guelph circuit in major cities such as Florence. His constant loyalty to the papal party had subsequently earned him the appointment of lieutenant of the papal army,” wrote Francesco Pirani in Tiranni e città nello Stato della Chiesa. He died in 1355.

GIOVANNI DA VARANO (known as Spaccalferro)

Son of Berardo, brother of Gentile, Rodolfo and Venanzio. Called Spaccalferro (“Iron Breaker”), a nickname earned from his habit of bending a horseshoe during contests and tournaments.

Count, Guelph, known by the nickname Spaccalferro, Giovanni da Varano was lord of Camerino, Tolentino, Macerata, Visso and San Ginesio. In 1339 he was podestà of Ascoli Piceno and Cingoli; in 1342 he served the Papal States together with other local lords. In 1343 he was investigated, along with his brothers, for the seizure of Tolentino and San Ginesio. In 1364 he took part in the Battle of Cascina alongside the Florentines against Pisa. Between 1366 and 1368 he held the office of senator of Rome by mandate of Pope Urban V; he was later reconfirmed in the same office. In 1375 he was podestà of Lucca. The most delicate moment of his career came in 1376, during the War of the Eight Saints: unlike his brothers Rodolfo and Venanzio, who sided with the Florentines against the papacy, Giovanni chose the papal side. For this choice he received as reward from Pope Gregory XI the vicariates of Tolentino and San Ginesio, taken from his opposing brothers. He was driven out of Camerino by Rodolfo and Venanzio in April of that same year. He strengthened the defensive system of Camerino and the surrounding territory; he extended the city walls to enclose the borough of San Venanzio; he raised the Beregna Tower and the Tower of the Park; he expanded the fortress of Varano. He strengthened the fortifications of Beldiletto, Sentino and Appennino. In 1382 he completed the Intagliata, a defensive line stretching for twelve kilometers and connecting the Beregna Tower to the Porta di Ferro tower near Pioraco. “In his time he was held to be the foremost jouster that Italy possessed,” wrote Francesco Sansovino in Delle origini e dei fatti delle famiglie illustri italiane. He died in 1387.

RODOLFO DA VARANO

Son of Berardo. Brother of Gentile, Giovanni and Venanzio. Father of Berardo. Father-in-law of Galeotto Malatesta. He married Paola Bianca Malatesta, daughter of the lord of Fano Pandolfo, and Camilla Chiavelli. Two of his sons married, one the daughter of Bartolomeo Smeducci, lord of San Severino Marche, and the other the daughter of Onofrio da San Severino, lord of the same town. Circa 1320 to November 1384.

The most powerful of Berardo’s sons, Rodolfo da Varano was lord of Camerino, Fabriano, Tolentino, Cingoli, Sarnano, San Ginesio, Amandola, Macerata, Corridonia, Civitanova Marche, Belforte del Chienti, Potenza Picena, Castelraimondo, Numana, Castelfidardo and Penna San Giovanni. His career unfolded over more than forty years across nearly every theater of medieval Italy. In 1337 he was captain of war for Siena against Pisa; in 1342 he was captain of the people in Florence. In 1345 he took part in the conquest of Smyrna against the Turks at the head of a hundred soldiers from Camerino. In 1351 he allied with the Visconti against the papal forces; in 1353 he was declared a Visconti ally by the Peace of Sarzana; shortly after he entered the pay of Cardinal Albornoz against the prefect Giovanni di Vico. The cardinal appointed him in 1353 captain general of the papal army; in 1355 he reconfirmed him in the same role after promoting him to Gonfalonier of the Papal States with a monthly stipend of 500 florins. In that same year, 1355, he inflicted a memorable defeat on Galeotto Malatesta, taken prisoner at Paterno d’Ancona after a battle commemorated in a chapel dedicated to Saint James. In the summer of that same year he obtained, as the first lord of the March to do so, the feudal investiture of Tolentino and San Ginesio for twelve renewable years. In 1362 he was appointed captain general by the Florentines against Pisa; he led a campaign marked by sieges, plundering, and raids in the Pisan Valdarno. In 1367 he accompanied Pope Urban V, then resident in Avignon, with 400 horsemen on his triumphal entry into Rome. In 1376 he joined the anti-papal Florentine league and, with his brother Venanzio, drove his brothers Giovanni and Gentile out of Camerino. The pope punished him by stripping him and his brother Venanzio of the vicariates previously granted to them. Appointed captain general by the Florentines, he distinguished himself in the defense of Bologna. At the start of the following year he came into conflict with his employers, both over the disputed possession of Fabriano (which had come under his control) and over his refusal to submit to the orders of the new captain general John Hawkwood. A change of sides followed: he went over to the papal party. Pope Gregory XI welcomed him with remarkable honors, entrusting him with command of his troops. In Florence, however, the Eight of War had his portrait painted on the city gates and in the public squares, hung by the feet as a traitor, accompanied by abusive verses. In response, da Varano had a portrait of the Eight painted on a facade of his palace in Camerino, with his own figure above it in the act of defecating on them, accompanied by a rhyme meant to be witty, written in large letters, roughly: “I am Rodolfo of Camerino, worthy lord of this land, who craps upon the Eight of War.” After a series of military ups and downs, he concluded alliances in 1378 with the communes of Fermo, Ancona and Recanati. Judgments of him range from the “man of great worth” of Ludovico Antonio Muratori, to the “man of shrewd intellect” of Leonardo Bruni, to the more recent assessment offered by Jean-Baptiste Delzant in the Dizionario biografico degli Italiani: “From the end of the fourteenth century he became a literary figure: the type of the affable lord, fond of witty remarks and good conversation. Franco Sacchetti, who knew him, gave him a role in the Trecentonovelle; several episodes were taken up by Poggio Bracciolini in the Confabulationes, and later, in the sixteenth century, by Lodovico Domenichi in his Detti et fatti di diversi signori et persone private. Humanists too kept Rodolfo’s memory alive: Platina counts him among the tyrants who seized papal territories, and recalls the help he gave the Bolognese on Florence’s orders.” He died in November 1384.

GENTILE DA VARANO

Son of Berardo. Brother of Rodolfo, Giovanni and Venanzio. Father of Rodolfo. He married Teodora Salimbeni and Elisabetta Bevilacqua. He died in 1399.

Lord of Tolentino, Camerino, Sarnano, Amandola, Gualdo Cattaneo, Esanatoglia, Urbisaglia, Colmurano, Belforte del Chienti, Penna San Giovanni, Monte San Martino, Cerreto d’Esi, San Ginesio, Treia, Corridonia, Visso and Potenza Picena, Gentile da Varano‘s career overlapped in part with that of his brother Rodolfo. In 1343 he was investigated together with his brothers for the invasions of the territories of Tolentino and San Ginesio. In 1351 he allied with the Visconti against the papal forces. In 1362 he was appointed senator of Rome by Pope Urban V; he was reconfirmed in the office in 1367 as well. In 1371 he was summoned to Perugia by Cardinal Pietro di Bourges, who wished to take possession of Camerino: Rodolfo managed to evade the trap, and the papal official returned empty-handed. In 1375 he was podestà of Lucca. In 1376, during the War of the Eight Saints, he supported the papal side and received from Pope Gregory XI the vicariates of Tolentino and San Ginesio; in the course of the conflict he was driven out of Camerino by his brothers Rodolfo and Venanzio, who had chosen the opposite side. Reconciled with Rodolfo, on his death (1384) he took over the government of Camerino, first together with his brother Giovanni and, later, alone after the latter’s death. Twice more he was driven out of Camerino, by his nephew Berardo da Varano and by the latter’s son Rodolfo (both names very frequent within the family), in 1386 and in 1390: each time he recovered power with the help of the mercenary companies of Boldrino da Panicale and Grasso da Imola in the first case, and with Visconti arms in the second. From 1392 there were also continuous conflicts with the Papal States, represented by the marquis of the March Andrea Tomacelli, brother of Pope Boniface IX. These were the years in which he faced, now as ally now as opponent, noted condottieri such as Conte da Carrara, Brandolino Brandolini, Azzo da Castello, Giovanni da Barbiano, Bartolomeo Smeducci, and Biordo dei Michelotti. The matter ended in November 1393, when the pope granted him many privileges. Gentile da Varano was thus able to recover various lands in the Val di Chienti, in exchange for which he committed to paying a tribute to the Holy See for each locality under his control. Still restless in the years that followed, in 1399, the year of his death, he found himself supporting the Malatesta and the papal forces in their struggle against the mercenary companies of Ceccolo Broglia and Conte da Carrara. “He was valiant in arms and excelled greatly in prudence and counsel, and he served the princes of Italy with much praise for his illustrious name,” wrote Sansovino.

RODOLFO DA VARANO

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Son of Gentile. He married Elisabetta Malatesta, daughter of Pandolfo, lord of Fano; in second marriage, Costanza Smeducci, daughter of Bartolomeo, lord of San Severino Marche; and in a third, a daughter of Pagnone Cima, lord of Cingoli. Children of the first wife: Berardo, Gentilpandolfo, Costanza (wife of Giacomo da Carrara), Venanzia (wife of Pino Ordelaffi), Guglielma (wife of Battista Chiavelli), Venanzio, and Tora (wife of Niccolò Trincia Trinci). Children of the second wife: Piergentile, Giovanni, Nicolina (who in second marriage wed Braccio da Montone), and Ansovina or Antonia (wife of Pandolfo Malatesta). Children of the third wife: Antonio, Ansovino, Venere, Luca, Rinaldo, Palutella, Ercole, and Livia. A natural son is the condottiere Piergiovanni. Father of 64 children in total, including the natural ones; of these, 54 reached adulthood. All the survivors were each given a castle, a parish, or the office of podestà. He died in March 1424.

Lord of Camerino, Tolentino, Macerata, Civitanova Marche, Visso, Esanatoglia, Sarnano, Urbisaglia, Colmurano, Belforte del Chienti, Penna San Giovanni, Monte San Martino, Gualdo Cattaneo, Cerreto d’Esi and Montesanto in the territory of Perugia. Nephew of Giovanni da Varano, during the War of the Eight Saints he governed Macerata on behalf of his uncle (1376). In 1378 he followed the Breton companies of the antipope Clement VII against Pope Urban VI. In 1382 he facilitated the passage of the troops of Louis of Anjou, bound for the Kingdom of Naples. In 1385 his uncle Giovanni entrusted him with the government of Macerata as podestà. On the death of his father Gentile in 1399 he became the principal lord of Camerino: he pursued a complex foreign policy that led him to ally with Braccio da Montone, to become father-in-law of four of the most important condottieri of the age, and to resist the many attempts at submission by the Church. He had the castle of La Rancia built near Tolentino. Accounts of him are unanimous and all in agreement on the same theme. “It is said that he had 54 children, all of whom lived to eat bread,” wrote Sansovino. He died in May 1424 in his castle of Beldiletto.

BERARDO DA VARANO

Son of Rodolfo and his first wife Elisabetta Malatesta. The names of his brothers and sisters are listed in the previous entry. He married Viviana Trinci. He died in July 1434.

Lord of Camerino, Tolentino, Caldarola, Amandola, Fiordimonte, Muccia, Crispiero, Agello, Antico, Bolognola, Valcadara and Casavecchia, Berardo was brother-in-law of Braccio da Montone and son-in-law of Ugolino Trinci. In 1403 he took part in the jousts of Padua for the wedding of Giacomo da Carrara to his sister Costanza. In 1405 he purchased Amandola for 4,000 ducats. In 1407 he operated in the Marche alongside Braccio da Montone against Ludovico Migliorati, seizing Servigliano and a series of castles in the area of Fermo. In 1408 he entered the service of the king of Naples Ladislaus of Durazzo to oppose the papal troops. In 1409 he confronted the Florentines in Tuscany. Between 1410 and 1411 he supported Braccio da Montone in his struggle against Perugia. In 1414 he sided with the papacy, allying with John of Lusignan, king of Cyprus. On his father’s death he became lord of Camerino. The family estate was then divided. He seized Tolentino together with his brother Gentilpandolfo; in 1433 he accused his half-brothers Piergentile and Giovanni before the papal legate of the March, the bishop of Recanati Giovanni Vitelleschi. The prelate summoned the four brothers to San Severino Marche. Berardo, pleading an attack of gout, sent his sons in his place; Piergentile, accused of counterfeiting currency within the Papal States, was arrested and beheaded at the end of July. Giovanni, by contrast, declined the summons. Back in Camerino, Berardo’s sons met with their uncle Giovanni in Gentilpandolfo’s room. A quarrel broke out in which the young men accused their uncle of having caused the family’s ruin by not accepting Vitelleschi’s invitation. Giovanni left the room and was killed with axe blows by Berardo’s hired killers. In the spring of 1434 he served the papal forces, under the command of Francesco Sforza, against the Visconti forces led by Niccolò Piccinino. He received 20,000 florins, of which 12,000 in cash; in exchange he had to hand over a son as a hostage. Taliano Furlano, who belonged to the same faction, seized Serravalle di Chienti from Berardo. He complained about it to Piccinino, who advised him to help his hostage son escape and to abandon the papal cause. He fortified himself in Tolentino. In July he was killed by the town’s inhabitants, assisted by Foschino Attendolo, while walking near the city walls. In October a popular uprising in Camerino led to the massacre of the male members of the house of da Varano in the church of San Domenico: killed were his brother Gentilpandolfo with his sons, and the brothers Gianfilippo, Bartolomeo and Ansovino. On that occasion Elisabetta Malatesta, widow of Piergentile, managed to save her children Rodolfo, Costanza and Primavera, as well as her nephew Giulio Cesare, son of Giovanni.

GIOVANNI/PIERGIOVANNI DA VARANO

Natural son of Rodolfo, brother of Berardo. He died in 1456.

Known as Piergiovanni da Camerino, this Giovanni da Varano was one of the survivors of the massacre that took place in Camerino in October 1434, which ended with the summary execution by the crowd of most of the male sons of the house, stemming from a bloody family feud and a struggle for power. In 1440 he served in the companies of Pietro Giampaolo Orsini, defending the castle of Forlimpopoli before surrendering it under terms. In 1443 he was helped by Carlo da Montone to recover the lordship of Camerino, which Francesco Sforza had taken from his relatives: he re-entered the city to the acclamation of the people. In 1448 he fought for the Ambrosian Republic against the Venetians in Lombardy. In 1453 he again faced the Venetians under the command of Francesco Sforza, by then duke of Milan, defeating Jacopo Piccinino at Ghedi in an episode in which his valor on the battlefield was praised. At the end of the conflict, in 1455, he was strongly urged by Sforza to move with his family to the duchy and settle at his court. He was granted only the revenues of a few villages in the Piacenza area, without the exercise of jurisdictional rights. Dissatisfied with the treatment offered to him, he abandoned the duchy. He died the following year. He is praised for his valor by contemporaries such as Giovanni Simonetta, in Rerum gestarum Francisci Sfortiae Mediolanensium ducis commentarii, and by Bernardino Corio, in L’historia di Milano.

GIOVANNI DA VARANO

Son of Rodolfo and the latter’s second wife Costanza Smeducci. Brother of Berardo, Gentilpandolfo and Piergentile. He married Bartolomea Smeducci, daughter of Antonio da San Severino, lord of San Severino Marche. Father of Giulio Cesare. He died in September 1433.

Lord of Gualdo Cattaneo, Tolentino, Pioraco, Cessapalombo, Statte, Elcito, Castelraimondo, Pieve Torina and Pievefavera. In 1423 he served in the companies of Braccio da Montone in the service of the king of Aragon. In 1424, on the death of his father Rodolfo, he became lord of Camerino together with his brothers. That same year he went to Gallicano to see the pope to defend the cause of his sister Nicolina, widow of Braccio da Montone, who had remained in Perugia. His subsequent military service was marked by both successes and failures: he fought for the Perugians against local exiles, served briefly with the Milanese ducal forces, and in July 1426 was induced to change sides by a Florentine promise of 20,000 florins. In 1427 he faced the Visconti forces under Carmagnola on behalf of the Venetians. Having returned to the Marche in April 1432, together with his brother Piergentile he was accused of treason by his half-brothers Berardo and Gentilpandolfo before the papal legate, the bishop of Recanati Giovanni Vitelleschi. In September 1433 he was summoned to San Severino Marche on suspicion of wanting to seize Camerino with the help of the duke of Milan Filippo Maria Visconti. Wary, he refused to go, unlike his brother Piergentile. The latter, at the end of the month, was taken prisoner and beheaded at Recanati on the charge of having counterfeited currency within the Papal States. Berardo’s sons, on their return from the meeting with the papal legate, accused him of having endangered the family’s future through his conduct. A quarrel followed; on leaving the room of his half-brother Gentilpandolfo, he was ambushed by some of his half-brother Berardo’s hired killers and killed with axe blows. “He was a valiant captain of his time,” according to Pompeo Litta in Famiglie storiche italiane; “See that other one full of worth, Giovanni da Varano, who led great companies with diligence and courtesy,” from verses by Cambino Aretino.

GIULIO CESARE DA VARANO

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Of Camerino. Son of Giovanni and Bartolomea Smeducci. He married Giovanna Malatesta, daughter of the lord of Rimini Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta and of Polissena Sforza, herself a natural daughter of Francesco Sforza. Father of Giovanni Maria, Venanzio, Pirro, Cesare Ottaviano, Annibale, Ringarda, Emilia, and Camilla (a nun, proclaimed blessed by Pope Gregory XVI in 1843 and a saint by Pope Benedict XVI in October 2010). Father-in-law of Muzio Colonna; uncle of Carlo Baglioni. 1434 to October 1502.

The most important figure of the house in the fifteenth century, Giulio Cesare da Varano was lord of Camerino, Nocera Umbra, Cerreto d’Esi, Esanatoglia, Gagliole, Fiuminata, Serravalle del Chienti, Belforte del Chienti, Serrapetrona, Fiastra, Acquacanina, Bolognola, Montacuto and Potenza Picena. His birth, in 1434, coincided with the massacre that killed his grandfather Berardo and destroyed the family: he was saved by his aunt Tora, who hid him first in a bundle of hay and then in a convent of nuns. He was taken first to Fabriano, then to Fossombrone, and finally to Faenza, far from the Marche. In 1443, at the age of nine, he was able to return to Camerino with the support of his uncle Carlo da Montone’s troops. He was acclaimed lord by the people; on that occasion Vincenzo Maligeri, the author of the 1434 conspiracy that had cost his relatives their lives, was killed. In 1447 he was appointed apostolic vicar together with his cousin Rodolfo, son of Piergentile and Elisabetta Malatesta. Pope Nicholas V, given the young age of the two lords, entrusted the government of the city to Elisabetta Malatesta, who had withdrawn to a convent after her husband’s death. In 1453 he fought for Florence against Naples; from 1454 he served Siena against the Orsini at the siege of Sorano. In 1456 he married Giovanna Malatesta. In 1458 he was hired by his father-in-law Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta against Federico da Montefeltro. His military career continued for decades in the Marche and in Tuscany, alternating between papal, Venetian and Medicean commissions. At the end of 1464 his cousin Rodolfo died suddenly, leaving him sole head of the lordship of Camerino. Giulio Cesare was suspected of having poisoned his relative; the rumor would be revived decades later by Pope Alexander VI in the trial brought against him with the aim of seizing the town. In 1482 he took part in the Battle of Campomorto against the Aragonese. In 1487 he confronted, on behalf of the Venetian Republic, the troops of Duke Sigismund of Austria in the Trentino. In the following years he held firmly onto the lordship of Camerino thanks to a web of marriage alliances and a style of government that contemporary sources judged balanced. His end was tragic: in September 1502, Cesare Borgia, in the course of systematically seizing the lordships of Romagna and the Marche, forced Giulio Cesare, after a brief conflict, to surrender unconditionally. He was stripped of all his possessions. He was allowed to go to Matelica, to his son-in-law Ranuccio Ottoni, husband of his natural daughter Emilia. The Duke Valentino invited Ottoni to Urbino: he went there with all his relatives after receiving specific assurances. The first welcome was courteous; shortly after, Ottoni was ordered to bring his relatives to the fortress of Pergola for their greater safety. All the da Varano were captured; only Ranuccio Ottoni was spared. Giulio Cesare was strangled by Borgia with a silken cord in that same fortress in October. The same fate soon befell his sons Annibale, Venanzio and Pirro. His daughter Camilla, a Poor Clare nun, managed to escape to Atri. Giulio Cesare da Varano had the splendid Ducal Palace built around 1460 and founded the monastery of Santa Chiara. “He was worth little,” is how Marin Sanudo assessed him in his Diarii, as far as military matters were concerned. He is, however, celebrated for his patronage of the arts and learning, becoming “the promoter and true author of Camerino humanism… He was the protagonist of the dynasty’s most brilliant season, destined to yield before the extraordinary power of Cesare Borgia,” wrote Ileana Tozzi.

ANNIBALE DA VARANO

Natural son of Giulio Cesare. Brother of Venanzio, Pirro, Cesare Ottaviano, Giovanni Maria, Ringarda, Emilia and Camilla. He died in February 1503.

Natural son of Giulio Cesare da Varano, Annibale shared with his brother Venanzio the fate of the house’s final years. In the pay of the papacy, in 1482 he moved with his father and brother Cesare Ottaviano toward Rome and took part in the Battle of Campomorto. In February 1485 he was in Venice, where he took part in a solemn joust in St Mark’s Square organized by Roberto da San Severino. On that occasion he was made a knight and rewarded with a sable-lined cloth of gold. In 1487 he reached the Venetian camp at Serravalle to fight the Austrian troops. In July he was captured at Ravazzone in a clash in which sixty Venetians lost their lives. In the 1490s he served in the Marche on his father’s behalf, sent to relieve Fermo against the people of Ascoli. In 1494 he reappears active in Venetian service. In 1502, when his father surrendered to Cesare Borgia after the rebellion of Camerino, Annibale tried to escape capture by hiding in a friend’s house; he was discovered in a cistern and imprisoned at Cattolica together with his brother Venanzio. In February 1503 he was locked in the fortress of Pesaro and there strangled by Michelotto Corella, the Borgia hitman; according to other sources he was strangled near Rimini, on the Terzo, near a small church by the sea, where he is buried. “He is a fine warrior, young in years and skilled in arms,” from La guerra dei tedeschi contro i veneziani, in Guerre in ottava rima.

VENANZIO DA VARANO

Son of Giulio Cesare and Bartolomea Smeducci. Brother of Annibale, Cesare Ottaviano, Pirro, Giovanni Maria, Ringarda, Emilia and Camilla. He married Maria della Rovere, sister of the duke of Urbino Francesco Maria. He died in February 1503.

Of Pioraco, Venanzio da Varano was the legitimate son of Giulio Cesare, son-in-law of Giovanni della Rovere. His military career was brief but intense, unfolding mainly in the service of the Kingdom of Naples and the Papal States over a span of a few years straddling the fourteen hundreds and fifteen hundreds. In July 1487 he took part in the clash at Ravazzone, where he was captured by a member of the Cavalcabò family fighting for Duke Sigismund of Austria. In 1492 he served Naples. In September 1495 he again fought for Naples against the French in Campania. Captured near Eboli by Swiss infantry and French lances, he was held for a ransom of 13,000 ducats. In January 1496 he was freed at Salerno through a prisoner exchange. In December of the same year he was led by Pope Alexander VI, with fifty lances, against the Orsini. In 1497 he operated in the Marche against Ascoli Piceno on behalf of the commune of Fermo. In September 1498 he was contacted by the Venetians to confront the Florentines in Tuscany. In June and September 1502, while his father resisted Cesare Borgia, he defeated near Esanatoglia the duke of Gravina Francesco Orsini; on his father’s surrender, he tried to flee. Discovered in a cistern, he was imprisoned at Cattolica with his brother Annibale. In February 1503, locked in the fortress of Pesaro, he was strangled by Michelotto Corella; some sources place his murder near Rimini instead.

RODOLFO DA VARANO

Natural son of Giovanni Maria. Father of Ercole. He married Beatrice Colonna, natural daughter of Fabrizio and sister of Sciarra. He died in November 1527.

This Rodolfo da Varano, distinguished from all the earlier namesakes by his place in early sixteenth-century chronology, was the last lord of Camerino belonging to the house of da Varano. Son-in-law of Fabrizio Colonna and brother-in-law of Sciarra Colonna, his career unfolded entirely within the context of the Italian Wars between the Empire and France. In February 1524 he was hired from Milan with fifty lances against the French. In February 1525 he operated near Casalmaggiore in Lombardy; with Alessandro Bentivoglio he defeated Gian Ludovico Pallavicini and Niccolò Varolo nearby, capturing Pallavicini. In the summer he is recorded in the Milan area with Bartolomeo da Villachiara; in September he was at Alessandria with five hundred infantry. In 1526, dismissed by the imperial forces, he entered the pay of the Papal States against his former employers, operating in the Parma area with eight hundred horse. In December 1526 he defended Piacenza from the Landsknechts of Georg von Frundsberg. In 1527, on the death of his father Giovanni Maria da Varano, he entered Camerino ahead of the French. Urged on by Venanzio della Serra, he captured Duchess Caterina Cybo, widow of his father, and imprisoned her in the Palazzo della Guardia in Camerino. In November the papal forces attacked Camerino. He was besieged in the castle of Preci, near Norcia, by Orazio Baglioni. He surrendered unconditionally. He was taken to the fortress of Pesaro and was freed, along with his wife, only after handing over the city to the papal forces. Shortly afterward he was imprisoned again, and was beheaded at Macerata under pressure from his stepmother Caterina Cybo, regent of the duchy.

MATTIA DA VARANO

Son of Ercole. Brother of Alessandro. He died in 1551.

A peripheral figure of the house’s last branch, in 1527 he followed his father Ercole in the attempt to wrest the lordship of Camerino from his grandfather Rodolfo. In 1528 he again took up arms, together with Alessandro da Varano, against the new lady of Camerino, Caterina Cybo. Defeated in May 1528, he returned to Ferrara and turned to the profession of arms; in Camerino he was sentenced to death in absentia. He survived until 1551, presumably living far from Camerino as a soldier of fortune in the service of various employers, the last scion of a house by then extinct.