Counts of Fondi, lords of Sermoneta and of Traietto (Minturno), protagonists for two centuries of the wars between the Angevins, Aragonese, Colonna and Orsini

The Gaetani (Caetani) rank among the most important feudal families of southern Lazio and the border with the Kingdom of Naples between the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries. Holders of the counties of Fondi, Sermoneta, Sant’Agata dei Goti and Morcone, as well as the duchy of Traietto (Minturno) and the principality of Altamura, the condottieri of this house operated across a geographic range stretching from Gaeta to Rome, from Abruzzo to Puglia, aligning themselves at different times with the Papal States, the Angevins, or the Aragonese, and also taking part in the factional struggles between the Colonna and the Orsini that bloodied Lazio for generations.

The most thoroughly documented core of the family revolves around Cristoforo Gaetani, count of Fondi, and his nephews, among them Ruggero Gaetani, killed in 1436 during an internal inheritance dispute within the house that led, in that same period, to the family’s division into the two branches of Fondi and Sermoneta. From this latter branch descend, in the following decades, Cola Gaetani and Bonifacio Gaetani, both lords of Sermoneta; the Fondi branch, meanwhile, traces by title to Onorato Gaetani, duke of Traietto. Also documented on the site are two condottieri from distinct branches of the family, not explicitly linked to the Fondi or Sermoneta core: Cesare Gaetani, count of Filettino, and Piero Gaetani, a member of the Pisan branch of the family. Below are the profiles of the Gaetani condottieri featured on the site condottieridiventura.it, arranged by family branch and chronology.

CRISTOFORO GAETANI

1361 – 1441 (May). Of Sermoneta. Count of Fondi, count of Sermoneta, count of Sant’Agata dei Goti, count of Morcone; baron of Tocco. Lord of Sermoneta, Sonnino, Sant’Agata dei Goti, Morcone, Tocco Caudio, Minturno, Marino. Son of Giacomo and Sveva da San Severino. Brother of Antonio, patriarch of Aquileia and cardinal, as well as of an older brother, also named Giacomo after their father. Uncle of Ruggero Gaetani. He married first Isabella de Pezzutis, then, at the end of March 1436, Bannella del Forno (also recorded elsewhere as Bannella del Ferro), by whom he had already had ten children legitimized by the pope; the couple then had three more children. In his 1438 will he named his firstborn son Onorato as universal heir, reserving the county of Morcone for his second son, Giacomo.

Cristoforo Gaetani began his military career in 1384 alongside his father Giacomo, fighting for Charles of Durazzo against the claimant to the throne of Naples, Louis I of Anjou. In the following years he was appointed governor of Istria, with the title of marquis, by his brother Antonio, patriarch of Aquileia. Having returned to the Kingdom of Naples, in 1396 he was in conflict with the count of Fondi, Onorato Gaetani; further conflicts followed in which he fought alongside Alberico da Barbiano and Cecco dal Borgo, always against the Angevins of Provence. In July 1408 his paternal estates were confiscated by Ladislaus of Anjou; he took refuge in Tuscany, serving Florence. Soon restored to the sovereign’s favor, in 1418, though a second son, he succeeded his father in the county of Fondi, while the fiefs of Campagna and Marittima passed to his nephew Giacomo, son of his elder brother. He held major offices in the service of the Angevin crown of Naples, including the governorship of Rome, with the title of senator, as well as viceroy of Abruzzo and captain of L’Aquila. He was ultimately granted for life the offices of grand protonotary (head of the chancery, the fifth-ranking office in the kingdom) and logothete of the kingdom (the official responsible for authenticating official documents). He waged a years-long struggle for control of Gaeta, which he conquered in 1424 together with his nephew Ruggero and Guido Torelli. In 1425 the family patrimony, until then administered by Cristoforo also on behalf of his nephews, was divided into the two branches of Fondi and Sermoneta; in 1431 Cristoforo ceded to his nephew Giacomo the family’s fiefs located within the Papal States. Upon the death of Queen Joanna of Anjou of Naples in 1435, he sided with the Aragonese; he obtained Capua and took part in the siege of Gaeta. After the naval defeat at Ponza, he was driven out of the city and lost the lands around Minturno to Jacopo Caldora. In 1436, according to the sources, he had his nephew Ruggero killed, on the grounds that Ruggero had attempted to kill Onorato Gaetani, son of Giacomo, in the course of a dispute over primogeniture rights between the two branches of the family. He died at Fondi in May 1441. He is buried in a mausoleum in the church of San Pietro; according to other sources he may have died as early as October 1439, struck in the head by a stone hurled from a bombard during the siege of Naples. He is remembered by the humanist Bartolomeo Facio as “Vir animo et consilio clarus” in his work “De rebus gestis ab Alphonso primo Neapolitanarum rege commentarium.”

RUGGERO GAETANI

c. 1390 – 1436. Count of Traietto, lord of Minturno (Traietto). Nephew of Cristoforo Gaetani. His brothers Giacomo and Francesco are also mentioned as companions in arms.

In July 1408 Ruggero Gaetani was imprisoned in Naples together with his uncle Cristoforo, owing to the defection of his uncle, Cardinal Antonio, who had abandoned the cause of Pope Gregory XII, an ally of the king of Naples, in favor of the rebel cardinals assembled in council at Pisa. Once freed, he fought for Louis II of Anjou against Ladislaus of Anjou, entering Rome in 1411 and forcing the Neapolitan troops to retreat. Having reconciled with the sovereign of Naples, he was appointed chamberlain of the kingdom of Sicily in 1413; upon the latter’s death he became a member of the royal council of Queen Joanna II of Anjou. Under the orders of Braccio da Montone, he attacked the abbey of Montecassino in 1421 and occupied its holdings for six years. He then entered the service of King Alfonso the Magnanimous of Aragon. In 1424 he conquered Gaeta together with his uncle Cristoforo and Guido Torelli, then defended L’Aquila, which was under siege by Braccio da Montone’s forces. In 1425 he offered his services, along with his brother Giacomo, to the Florentines; in 1428 he served Pope Martin V against Città di Castello. In 1431, upon the death of Martin V, he confronted, together with his brother Francesco and Antonio Colonna, the troops of the new pope, Eugene IV, who had fallen out with the Colonna family, to which the previous pope had belonged. He briefly burst into Rome, was declared a rebel, excommunicated, and stripped of his possessions. In 1433 he reconciled with the pope and with the queen of Naples, and in return was granted the office of chamberlain, one of the seven great offices of the kingdom, which carried responsibility for administering the royal treasury. In 1435 he sided with Alfonso of Aragon, obtained Capua, and commanded the land forces at the siege of Gaeta. He was forced to abandon operations following the Aragonese defeat in the naval battle of Ponza at the hands of the Genoese. In 1436 he revived the dispute with his uncle Cristoforo over primogeniture rights between the Sermoneta and Fondi branches of the Gaetani family. This led him to attempt to kill his nephew Onorato; he was in turn put to death by his uncle.

COLA GAETANI (Nicola Gaetani)

1440 – 1494 (July). Lord of Sermoneta. Son of Onorato Gaetani. Brother-in-law of Virginio Orsini. In 1472 he issued a proxy authorizing his marriage to a daughter of Napoleone Orsini, count of Tagliacozzo. He had a niece, Giulia Farnese, who in 1489 married Orso Orsini, lord of Bassanello.

Cola Gaetani was imprisoned by Pope Pius II in 1461 and taken to Naples, where Ferrante of Aragon had him confined in the Castel dell’Ovo because of his enmity with the count of Fondi. In 1463 he was imprisoned once again, this time for his father Onorato’s rebellion against the Aragonese. He was freed only the following year, when his father submitted to King Ferrante of Aragon. He then took up the life of a mercenary. He served in the companies of Bartolomeo Colleoni on behalf of the Venetians, and later entered the service of the duke of Milan, Galeazzo Maria Sforza, who granted him a command of 200 horsemen. He was forced to flee Milan in 1472 because of debts: some of his property, already pledged, along with nine fine mounts, was confiscated. Having entered Aragonese pay, in 1478 he opposed the Florentines in Tuscany during the war that followed the Pazzi conspiracy, and was captured in a skirmish by Bernardino da Todi. In 1481 he fought the Turks in the War of Otranto, and is recorded as taking part in the war council convened by the duke of Calabria, Alfonso of Aragon. In the struggle between the Colonna and the Orsini that poisoned Lazio during the 1480s, he sided with the former against the latter: in 1485, at the siege of Lanuvio, he was caught at dawn by Paolo Vitelli and Troiano Savelli. Forced to flee, he had to abandon to his opponents a hundred suits of armor, two hundred mounts, silverware, crossbows, three bombards, and other artillery pieces worth 20,000 ducats. The following month his adversaries seized 12,000 head of livestock on his lands; in retaliation he took part in a raid that carried off 3,000 head of cattle belonging to Virginio Orsini. For this act, by order of Pope Innocent VIII, he was captured and imprisoned in Rome, in the Apostolic Palace, until the conclusion of a peace treaty between the two factions. He then entered the pay of the Papal States against the king of Naples, Ferrante of Aragon. In 1492 he welcomed Cardinal Giovanni de’ Medici to Rome and was assigned to guard the conclave that elected Pope Alexander VI. He died poisoned in July 1494, by Matteo da Pesaro, a Lateran canon, while returning to Sermoneta.

BONIFACIO GAETANI

1514 (November) – 1574 (March). Lord of Sermoneta. Son of Camillo.

During the Sack of Rome in May 1527, the imperial troops occupied Sermoneta. On that occasion he was given as a hostage to the viceroy of Naples, Hugo de Moncada, and was able to rejoin his father Camillo only in March 1530. He then went to Rome to pursue his studies, as a guest of Cardinal Alessandro Farnese. In 1550 he served King Henry II of France, who granted him an annual pension of 4,000 florins. From Sermoneta, in 1554, he supported Piero Strozzi, who was engaged against the imperial forces in the Sienese territory. The following year he thwarted an attempted takeover of his own fiefs by his relative Antonio, lord of Maenza, backed by the viceroy of Naples, Cardinal Pacheco. In May 1555 he accompanied Cardinal Carlo Carafa to France on a visit to King Henry II. In the service of Pope Paul IV, he organized in 1556 the defense of Sermoneta against a possible imperial attack, and was given the task of defending the Marittima (the Lazio coast), including Cori, Sezze, Carpineto Romano, Priverno and Terracina. Confirmed as governor of the Marittima also by Pius IV, in 1557 he was named captain general of the papal militia. In 1562 he had numerous watchtowers built along the Tyrrhenian coast to counter raids by Barbary corsairs. He later came into conflict with the same pope, who considered stripping him of the lordship of Sermoneta. He died at Cisterna in March 1574.

ONORATO GAETANI

d. 1528

Duke of Traietto (Minturno), prince of Altamura, count of Fondi. Lord of Mottola, Minervino di Lecce, Grottaglie.

In 1496 Onorato Gaetani served the French against the Aragonese of Naples. With the return of King Charles VIII to France the following year, he was stripped of the title of duke of Traietto, which was then granted by the king of Naples, Frederick of Aragon, to Prospero Colonna. Still in French service against the Spanish, in 1503 he was besieged in Gaeta by Gonzalo de Córdoba together with Yves d’Alègre and other captains. In 1507, in front of the church of Sant’Angelo al Nido in Naples, he was attacked by assassins sent by the prior of Messina; he barely escaped with his life by taking refuge in the palace of the count of Monteleone, Ettore Pignatelli. During the same period he was named prince of Altamura by King Ferdinand of Spain. In 1512 he took part in the Battle of Ravenna, where he was captured. During this period he received as fiefs Mottola, Minervino di Lecce and Grottaglie. The following year he attempted, unsuccessfully, before the Roman Rota, to recover the fiefs confiscated in 1496 in favor of the Colonna. In 1513 he fought the Venetians at the Battle of Creazzo. In 1523 he followed the viceroy of Naples, Charles de Lannoy, into Lombardy with 3,000 infantry, confronting the French under the command of Ferdinando d’Avalos. He entered Milan, welcomed by Duke Francesco Sforza; in June of the following year his conduct in the conflict was praised in Venice, where he was judged a “good condottiero” by the Venetian provveditore generale, Piero Pesaro. He returned to the Kingdom of Naples at the end of the year to raise troops against the French commanded by the duke of Albany, John Stuart. In 1526 he accompanied Charles de Lannoy to France for the peace negotiations between Emperor Charles V and King Francis I of France; he is recorded at Cartagena awaiting embarkation for Italy. He died in 1528.

CESARE GAETANI (Cesare of Filettino)

d. 1528

Of Filettino, province of Frosinone. Count of Filettino.

In 1511 Cesare Gaetani supported Cardinal Pompeo Colonna against Pope Julius II. In 1513 he served in the company of Prospero Colonna; taken prisoner by the French, he was held for a long time in the fortress of Pizzighettone. In 1515 he stood alongside Marcantonio Colonna in the defense of Verona, and was badly wounded in the face in the clash at Valeggio sul Mincio against the Venetians. In 1521, under the orders of Prospero Colonna, he had serious disputes with Sciarra Colonna, and committed certain crimes for which he was condemned by Pope Leo X; in April of that same year he was pardoned in full by the same pope. In 1526 he once again sided with the Colonna against Pope Clement VII: at the head of 2,000 infantry he occupied Anagni, then advanced on Rome, where he seized three of the city’s gates and sacked the Borgo Leonino; captured that same day in the Apostolic Palace together with Marzio Orsini, he was soon freed. In November he broke the papal siege of Paliano; in December he attempted a night attack on Rome with Count Girolamo Tuttavilla, smuggling soldiers disguised as papal troops into the city. The action failed and Cesare Gaetani was forced to withdraw. In 1527 he attacked Anagni without success, as it was defended by Niccolò da Tolentino. He died in the second half of 1528.

PIERO GAETANI

(Piero Magagni dei Gaetani, Piero Magagna, Piero Guatani, Pietro di Benedetto Gaetani)

URL: https://condottieridiventura.it/piero-gaetani/

d. 1425

Of Pisa. Son of Benedetto. He had three sons, whose names have not been recorded. He belonged to a collateral branch of the family that had long since settled in Pisa.

Forced to leave Pisa, Piero Gaetani turned to the profession of arms. In 1379 he served in the companies of Alberico da Barbiano, in the pay of Charles of Durazzo, claimant to the throne of Naples; the following year he joined the same condottiero in the Sienese territory. Captured by the Florentines in 1381, he was freed the following year through a friend’s intervention, and then entered their service; in the spring of 1382 he was assigned, together with John Hawkwood, to counter raids carried out in Tuscany by the mercenary companies of Alberico da Barbiano and Villanuccio da Villafranca. Learning of an enemy incursion at Contignano, he left Siena with 200 lances through the Porta dell’Ovile and advanced toward the town, near Monteliscai, followed by many citizens and peasants, some unarmed, who had joined his troops out of curiosity or hope of plunder. He tried to drive off the intruders. When the enemy arrived, the frightened peasants fled, throwing his ranks into disorder. Many were killed among the vineyards, the fields, and along the road. Piero Gaetani halted his pursuit near Contignano, while his opponents chose to avoid further engagement. On his return he was criticized for having let the raiders escape. In 1384 he served the lord of Cortona, Uguccio Casali; in 1387, in the pay of the antipope Clement VII against the supporters of Urban VI, he joined Bernardo della Sala in supporting Francesco di Vico in the defense of Viterbo; the campaign having ended badly, in December he ravaged Pisan territory together with the same French condottiero’s company, entered Pisa, and extracted a ransom of 8,000 florins from its inhabitants. He continued his raids between Tuscany and Umbria as far as Perugia. In 1390, during the siege of Agello, he disobeyed the orders of his employers (the commune of Perugia) and sacked the town even though its defenders had surrendered under terms; he was imprisoned and had to pay a ransom of 1,500 florins to secure his release. In 1402 he was podestà of Como on behalf of the lord of Milan, Gian Galeazzo Visconti. He returned to Pisa with the Visconti forces. In 1405, because of enmity with the Gambacorta family, he left the city and seized the fortress of Pecciole along with other small castles; the following year he ceded the conquered strongholds to the Florentines in exchange for 1,500 florins. He was also granted citizenship of the commune, a house in Parione (formerly belonging to Ceccolo Broglia), and a command of 20 lances. In 1406, with the Florentine conquest of Pisa, he was knighted in the Piazza della Signoria by the gonfaloniere di giustizia, Vanni Castellani. In 1407 he was granted an annual stipend of 500 florins, with a further 300 florins for his three sons. In 1416 he had his own tomb built in Florence, whose tombstone slab is the work of craftsmen associated with Lorenzo Ghiberti. He died in 1425.

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