How a baronial family of Rome built, lost, and fought to reclaim its power across two turbulent centuries

The Savelli are one of the oldest and most powerful baronial families of Rome, whose history intertwines for over two centuries with the fortunes of the Papal State, with the factional struggles between Guelphs and Ghibellines, and with the interests of the great European monarchies competing for control of Italy between the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The family counts two popes among its members, Honorius III and Honorius IV (as well as three other pontiffs who lived between the sixth and ninth centuries). Lords of Palombara Sabina, Castel Gandolfo, Ariccia, Rignano Flaminio, Albano Laziale, and numerous other castles in Lazio, the Savelli exercised territorial control for generations founded on military force and the unscrupulous manipulation of alliances.

Like many great Roman houses, the family divided into distinct branches, oscillating between the Colonna-Ghibelline orbit and the Orsini-Guelph one, switching sides according to the convenience of the moment. Their condottieri fought for popes, kings of Naples, dukes of Milan, Venetians and French, always seeking to preserve and expand their feudal estates. The dynasty produced figures of the first rank in the art of war: men praised and vilified by the sources, capable of acts of extraordinary courage, of equal brutality, and of sordid greed. In the second half of the sixteenth century the main branch (that of Palombara Sabina) died out in the male line; the fiefs passed to other houses. The following are the entries for the condottieri catalogued on condottieridiventura.it, arranged chronologically by period of activity.

Jacopo Savelli

+c. 1355. From Rome. Son of Pandolfo. Nephew of Pope Honorius IV.

“A great and powerful baron of Rome” (Sansovino); “one of the most violent barons” (Ciucciovino); “nephew of Pope Honorius IV, he was the principal representative of the family in the first decades of the fourteenth century” (Vendittelli). Jacopo Savelli served as Senator of Rome on multiple occasions and as Angevin vicar of the city on behalf of the King of Naples, Robert of Anjou. Unstable and violent by nature, he first allied with the Colonna against the Orsini, then changed sides, embraced the imperial cause of Louis IV of Bavaria, and was present at his imperial coronation in Rome in January 1328. He was among the principal adversaries of Cola di Rienzo, against whom he organized conspiracies and had seditious placards posted. In 1348 he burst into the Capitoline Hill with his supporters and forced the tribune to flee. Appointed senator alongside Bertoldo Orsini, he had the documents of Cola di Rienzo’s government destroyed and permitted the sacking of the Capitoline itself. He persisted for decades as a protagonist of Roman upheavals, alternating sacrilegious attacks (the demolition of the bell tower of the church of Sant’Angelo in Pescheria in 1337) with sudden reconciliations with the Holy See. He died around 1355.

Luca Savelli

+1388. Son of Giovanni Battista. Father of Paolo. Married Lieta da Carrara. Lord of Civita Castellana, Tivoli, Montasola.

“A bold and valorous soldier” (Litta); “much remembered in the histories of Roman affairs of the fourteenth century and in the life of Cola di Rienzo” (F. Scifoni, Dizionario biografico universale). Luca, belonging to the Guelph faction, was one of the most active figures on the Roman scene in the second half of the fourteenth century. Allied with the Prefect of Rome Giovanni di Vico, he was excommunicated in 1344 for attacking the possessions of the Holy See; he subsequently reconciled with the papacy on multiple occasions, alternating phases of obedience with periods of open rebellion. In 1348, in league with Giordano Orsini and Sciarretta Colonna, he forced Cola di Rienzo to take refuge first in Castel Sant’Angelo and then to flee in the disguise of a friar. Appointed Senator of Rome alongside Bertoldo Orsini, he assumed the title of Captain of the People and declared the decrees of the previous government void. On the wall of the Capitoline appeared a portrait of Cola di Rienzo painted upside down alongside two of his kinsmen. Four years later he was driven out of Rome with his supporters by the Senator Rinaldo Orsini. Within a few days he re-entered the city; the civic rector Giovanni Cerroni escaped capture by retreating to the Abruzzi. In October 1354 he rose up with members of his family and the Colonna against Cola di Rienzo, who had previously returned to the government of Rome with the title of Tribune. His rival was seized by the populace while attempting to flee disguised as a charcoal seller: he was wounded and branded, his hands were cut off, he was disemboweled, and finally taken to the Colonna houses to be hanged. In the years that followed, Savelli distinguished himself by joining the mercenary company of Anichino di Baumgarten and plundering the Roman countryside. Circumstances shifted and he was sent by the people of Rome to Avignon to implore Pope Gregory XI to return with the curia to the Eternal City. Meanwhile his conflicts continued, now with the Orsini, now with the dell’Anguillara. In 1378 a coup attempt in Rome, conducted together with Count of Fondi Onorato Gaetani, to wrest power from the popular party dominating the Capitoline, failed. The ensuing repression was merciless against the 400 persons involved in the attempted revolt. Elected governor of Tivoli in 1388 by Pope Urban VI, he managed to repel an assault on the city by the Company of Bretons during the war between pope and antipope. He died the following year.

Paolo Savelli

c. 1340–October 1405. Son of Luca. Father of Giovanni Battista, appointed by Pope Martin V as custodian of the conclave with the title of Marshal of the Holy Roman Church. Married Costanza Savelli, of the Albano Laziale branch. Lord of Rignano Flaminio, Nazzano, Fianello, Montebuono, Montasola, Cresperia, Cantalupo in Sabina, Forano, Poggio Nativo, Poggio Moiano, Montorio Romano, Castelchiodato.

Commentators of every era are unanimous in their praise of him, all summarized in the judgment expressed by Laugier: “He was regarded as one of the most renowned captains of his century.” Paolo Savelli is indeed the most celebrated condottiere of his family throughout the fourteenth century. After following his father on his raids through the Roman countryside, he served in the Company of Saint George under Alberico da Barbiano, distinguished himself at the Battle of Marino against the Company of Bretons (1379), and subsequently passed into the service, for nearly twenty years, of the Count of Virtù and Duke of Milan Gian Galeazzo Visconti, who invited him to sit on his secret council. At the head of Visconti’s forces he devastated the Sienese and Aretine territories on multiple occasions and defeated John Hawkwood and the Florentines in several engagements. During this period he had the enemy condottiere Filippo Guazzalotti, recently captured by his men, poisoned during a banquet. The order came from Visconti himself, who was thus repaying an analogous act carried out by the Florentines against Giovanni degli Ubaldini. In 1404 he entered the service of the Most Serene Republic; having become captain general, he confronted the Carraresi and conducted a brilliant campaign in the Paduan territory through the use of stratagems and diversions that made him celebrated. Wounded multiple times, he never gave up. He died of plague in October 1405 at the camp of Bassanello. He was buried with great honors in Venice, in the presence of Doge Michele Steno, in the church of Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari. His tomb contains a gilded and polychrome wooden equestrian statue, a work by Jacopo della Quercia.

Evangelista Savelli

+May 1462. Brother of Cristoforo.

He served alternately for the Duke of Milan Francesco Sforza and for the Most Serene Republic during the Lombard wars of the 1450s, repeatedly yielding to the temptations of whichever enemy he faced in exchange for more advantageous terms. In July 1452 he deserted from the Sforza camp to the Venetian side; in December of the same year he came to terms with Alessandro Sforza. Through his defection he enabled the adversaries to seize a key stronghold, the bastion of Abbadia Cerreto, guarding the left bank of the River Adda toward Lodi. A bounty of 5,000 ducats was placed on his head for delivery alive, 3,000 for his corpse. A bounty was likewise placed on his man-at-arms, Francesco da Celano, guilty of having conducted the negotiations. The degrading portrait of Savelli, hanged by his feet, appeared in Venice on the walls of the public brothel near the Rialto. He died in Milan ten years later in extreme poverty. The Milanese court was obliged to pay his family 60 lire to cover the funeral expenses. “Enormous sums were offered as reward to whoever had captured Evangelista Savelli alive or dead, and the diplomatic agents of Venice spread the particulars of his betrayal throughout Italy with the intention that no one else would dare employ him again.” (Mallett)

Giovanni Savelli

+January 1498. Son of Pier Francesco. Brother of Luca, cousin of Antonello. Lord of Rignano Flaminio, Castel Savello, and Benano. Married a Monaldeschi della Cervara.

“A valorous condottiere, famous in that age in military matters” (Sansovino); a judgment that finds confirmation in the numerous and varied commissions Savelli held over time. He served the Venetians, the Colonna against the Orsini, the papacy against the Aragonese, and later the Florentines and the same Aragonese against the French forces of King Charles VIII allied with the Sforzeschi. His was a continuous shifting of allegiances according to circumstances. He distinguished himself at the Battle of Poggio Imperiale (1479), where he was captured, and in numerous operations in Tuscany, Umbria, and Lazio. On the Sienese payroll, in 1495 he brilliantly defended Montepulciano in its rebellion against the Florentines; he was ultimately defeated and taken prisoner by Ranuccio da Marciano. In 1497 he was active in Umbria, where, with Prospero Colonna and Antonello Savelli, he moved to support the exiles from Canale against Todi. He died in Orvieto in January 1498 under sinister circumstances; his body was sealed in a crate to be thrown into the Tiber. Neither the motivation for this act of vengeance nor its author is known.

Cristoforo Savelli

+c. 1500. Father of Ludovico, Antonello, and Onorio. Brother of Evangelista. Married Porzia Ciccano.

Between 1446 and 1449 he served under the Duke of Milan Filippo Maria Visconti and the Ambrosian Republic, a brief political experiment that ended with the lordship of Francesco Sforza and had arisen upon Visconti’s death with the aim of defending the state against conquest by other Italian powers. He was placed in charge of the defense of Parma and Fidenza on multiple occasions. After that point he disappears from the record until 1482, when Pope Sixtus IV stripped him of his properties at Albano Laziale. His figure remains in the shadow of his sons, who became protagonists in the struggles convulsing the Papal State between the Colonna and the Orsini. His importance is above all genealogical, as the father of three condottieri particularly active in the final years of the fifteenth century.

Antonello Savelli

c. 1450–April 1498. Son of Cristoforo, brother of Ludovico and Onorio. Married Virginia Orsini. Lord of Albano Laziale and Castel Savello.

Giampiero Brunelli writes in the Dizionario biografico degli Italiani: “In little more than fifteen years of military career, Savelli had committed himself to the Colonna and to the Ghibelline cause in all possible expressions of factional conflict, from episodes of violence in Rome to the better-known moments of inter-state confrontation involving the principal Italian and European sovereigns.” Very young, he immediately distinguished himself through his violent responses against the adversaries of the moment. He had the papal bargello killed near Velletri along with three foot soldiers, because this officer of justice for the Roman district had had two of his servants hanged on charges of theft. Antonello is the most capable and feared condottiere of his family in the second half of the fifteenth century: the chronicles unanimously judge him the most gifted of all the Savelli. Aligned with the Colonna and the Ghibelline faction, he stood for a long time at the center of the baronial struggles in Lazio. Excommunicated by Pope Sixtus IV, he defended Albano Laziale with extraordinary tenacity against the combined assaults of the papacy and the Orsini. He distinguished himself in Umbria in the wars against the Baglioni of Perugia, in Lazio, and in the Abruzzi; in 1494 he was present at the conquest of the fortress of Ostia on behalf of Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere, the future Pope Julius II. He led with his cousin Troilo Savelli the attack on Perugia in 1495, which ended in disaster for the exiles of the Oddi family. In April 1498 he took part in the Battle of Montecelio against the Orsini: he died a few days later from an artillery blow; according to other sources his death was caused by a severe wound to the right arm followed by mace blows dealt by his adversaries, which split his helmet and his skull. He was buried alongside his brother Onorio in Albano Laziale in the chapel of Saints Sebastian and Roch; the tomb was destroyed during the Second World War.

Ludovico Savelli

+c. 1500. Son of Cristoforo, brother of Antonello and Onorio.

His sphere of action was far more limited than that of his brothers. He was a violent Ghibelline baron, ever ready to assault members of the so-called Guelph faction. He was frequently involved in local affairs in the regions where he was present (Lazio and Umbria). He seized Cretone at the expense of Pier Giovanni Savelli in 1482; excommunicated, he was immediately driven from the locality by the intervention of Paolo Savelli. In 1485 he took part in Frascati in the capture of Girolamo Tuttavilla together with his brothers and the Colonna. In 1489 he attacked Orte, again with his brothers and the da Canale; he was repelled. In 1495 he was stationed at Todi for the Ghibellines of the region with 50 horsemen; he was forced to abandon the locality by the Orsini and their allies, the local Guelphs.

Onorio Savelli

+November 1500. Son of Cristoforo, brother of Antonello and Ludovico.

Brief, like his life, is the mention of him recorded in the Annali della città di Faenza by Bartolomeo Righi: “Valiant condottiere of several companies of the duke (Valentino),” meaning Cesare Borgia. In his service, in 1499 he took part in the assault and subsequent conquest of Imola. In 1500 he was engaged, again in Romagna, in the siege of Faenza: during a fierce engagement fought beneath the city walls, he was killed while attempting to scale them at the head of his company. He was buried alongside his brother Antonello in the chapel of Saints Sebastian and Roch in Albano Laziale; the tomb was destroyed during the Second World War.

Mariano Savelli

+c. 1505. Son of Jacopo. Father of Troilo, Jacopo, and Paolo. Brother of Battista and of Cardinal Giovanbattista. Married Servanzia del Balzo. Lord of Palombara Sabina, Castel Gandolfo, and Ariccia.

Mariano is a figure of some importance in the second half of the fifteenth century. He fought for the Angevins against the King of Naples Ferrante d’Aragona; he subsequently served on the papal payroll, entrusted with command of the troops guarding the apostolic palace. Upon the death of Pope Pius II he attempted to recover the castles taken from his father Jacopo. He then entered the service of Popes Paul II and Sixtus IV. It was during this period that Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere granted him Ariccia as a fief, pertaining to the abbey of Grottaferrata. On the same day he ceded the locality to his kinsman Pier Giovanni Savelli, from whom he received in exchange 100 rubbiae of land (each rubbia being equal to 184.3 are, each ara to 100 square meters) belonging to the castles of Grotta Scrofana, Santa Maria at Palombara, and Torre del Vescovo. He fought for the papacy against the Florentines, until in 1480 he was imprisoned by Sixtus IV. He managed to escape from Castel Sant’Angelo. Pardoned, he was again incarcerated in the same fortress alongside Cardinals Giovanni Colonna and his brother Giovanbattista, all suspected of organizing in Rome a treaty favorable to the Aragonese. He again escaped from Castel Sant’Angelo and took refuge at Rocca Priora. The pontiff ordered the demolition of his Roman palace in the Rione dei Monti; his properties were confiscated in favor of Girolamo Riario. At the pope’s death (1484) he returned to Rome at the head of armed men. In 1503 the new pope, Alexander VI, stripped him of Palombara Sabina; he recovered his fief upon that pontiff’s death. He died around 1505.

Battista Savelli

+October 1513. Son of Jacopo, brother of Mariano. Lord of Castel Gandolfo.

With his kinsmen he came to an agreement with Pierfrancesco Savelli, of the Rignano Flaminio branch, regarding the lordship of Palombara Sabina and Casperia. He served the Sienese against the Florentines during the revolt of Montepulciano. Having come to terms with the papacy, in 1506 he took part in both expeditions mounted by Pope Julius II against the Baglioni (Perugia) and the Bentivoglio (Bologna). He was gravely wounded at the Battle of Ravenna against the French commanded by Gaston de Foix (1512). The following year he fought on the Venetian payroll, under the command of Bartolomeo d’Alviano, against the Spanish forces led by Prospero Colonna and the Viceroy of Naples Raimondo di Cardona. He distinguished himself in the conquest of Vicenza. He died at the Battle of Creazzo.

Luca Savelli (Lord of Rignano Flaminio and Benano)

+c. 1515. Son of Pier Francesco. Brother of Giovanni, cousin of Antonello, son-in-law of Ludovico Orsini, whose daughter Donata he married. Lord of Rignano Flaminio and Benano.

One of the most long-serving and active condottieri of the family, judged nonetheless very harshly by contemporary sources: “An old condottiere, who for neither age nor experience had attained any degree of military knowledge” (Guicciardini). From his very beginnings he revealed a deceitful nature, even at the expense of his closest collaborators. The Venetians, in whose service he was, accused him of paying the men of his company with counterfeit money. His paymasters were arrested for passing forged currency. Luca Savelli hastily fled Venetian territory, and his former men-at-arms were compensated with the goods the “noble gentleman” had been forced to abandon in his haste. He served the King of Naples against the French (1495); seconded the actions of various members of his family in factional struggles; fought for Florence against Pisa and in numerous other campaigns always in that republic’s favor (1503–1509). In 1512 he was initially reported on the French payroll, assigned to the defense of Bergamo: assaulted by the Venetians under Renzo di Ceri, he obtained a safe-conduct to withdraw unharmed on the promise of not taking up arms for four months. One month later (August) he was reported in Florentine service. He found himself at the center of the disastrous defense of Prato, assaulted by the Spanish forces of Viceroy of Naples Raimondo di Cardona. The adversaries stormed the city walls; at the same time many of the garrison’s defenders, seized by fear, took to flight and threw down their arms. The city was subjected to a horrific sacking; the Spanish slaughtered the population. Estimates of the dead vary, according to the sources, from 2,600 to 5,600. Despite the disgrace, Savelli was able to continue in his profession without further infamy or distinction. He died around 1515.

Antonio Savelli

+1522. Son of Pier Giovanni. Brother of Silvio and Troiano; brother-in-law of Carlo Orsini. Married Battista da Varano, daughter of Venanzio.

His military career began in Umbria in two local conflicts, first in the service of Foligno against Perugia and subsequently of Terni against Spoleto. Particularly negative was the outcome of the first campaign (September 1495). He assaulted Perugia alongside 2,500 exiles of the Oddi family against the Baglioni who were lords of the city. Having entered through the Porta di San Giovanni, the population resisted the attackers: 400 men were captured, another 150 killed against only 6 dead among the defenders. Savelli’s horse was killed beneath him; he barely escaped capture. Imprisoned by Pope Alexander VI, he was freed by his brother Silvio only upon that pontiff’s death (1503). In the years that followed there is no record of his activity, apart from a request (1522) for a command of light cavalry submitted to the Most Serene Republic, which was rejected. In the same year he entered the papal payroll to confront Francesco Maria della Rovere who, at the head of a mercenary company, was attempting to recover the lost duchy of Urbino. He was killed in a tumult that broke out in Camerino when Giovanni Maria da Varano expelled Sigismondo da Varano from the city; the latter had been supported, on the contrary, by della Rovere.

Troiano Savelli

+c. 1510. Son of Pier Giovanni. Brother of Silvio and Antonio; cousin of Troilo. Brother-in-law of Carlo Orsini. Lord of Ariccia and, for a time, of part of Palombara Sabina.

The chronicles remember him as “a condottiere of great renown,” as attested by Litta. Unlike other members of his family, he was closer to the Orsini than to the Colonna. His first engagement near Frascati (June 1485) ended with plunder valued at 20,000 ducats: the victors seized 100 suits of armor, 200 mounts, crossbows and silverware belonging to various captains, 3 bombards, and other pieces of artillery. He subsequently served the Papal State (with the Colonna always as adversaries) and the French of King Charles VIII (against the Aragonese and Venetians). In mid-1496 he changed employer and opposed the French in Puglia and the Abruzzi. In 1498 he resumed the struggle against Colonna and Savelli, allied at that point with the latter. He seized the portion of Palombara Sabina belonging to Cardinal Giovanbattista Savelli, brother of Troilo, Jacopo, and Paolo. With Bartolomeo d’Alviano he besieged the fortress; assaulted by his cousin Troilo, he was forced to withdraw. After that date his name disappears from local histories and annals.

Silvio Savelli

+1515. Son of Pier Giovanni. Brother of Antonio and Troiano. Brother-in-law of Carlo Orsini. Married Porzia di Ceri, daughter of Giampaolo and niece of Renzo. Lord of Ariccia.

One positive and one unfavorable judgment are found concerning him, the latter assimilating him to other family members guilty of the same fault: avarice. “Who is said to be the best man of the house” (Pietro Giustinian, Delle historie venetiane); against which stands the assessment expressed by Giovio: “He was otherwise a noble and valorous man, but attended to gain with little generosity, and defrauded his soldiers of their pay.” A declared enemy of Cesare Borgia, in 1501 he circulated a letter revealing all the crimes and infamies of that family. In September 1503, upon the death of Pope Alexander VI of the Borgia house, he burst into Rome, recovered the family palace previously ordered demolished, and freed political prisoners from Tor di Nona, among them his brother Antonio. All this did not prevent him, the following month, from defending, again in Rome, the same Cesare from attacks by the Orsini and their allies, Bartolomeo d’Alviano and Renzo di Ceri. In 1505 he fought for the Florentines at the Battle of Campiglia Marittima, where d’Alviano and the supporters of Piero dei Medici were routed; there followed commissions with the Spanish (1510), the papacy (1511), and finally the Duke of Milan Massimiliano Sforza, who appointed him ducal counselor and Senator of Milan. In the subsequent campaigns that, from 1512 onwards, unfolded in Lombardy (in the Crema, Bergamo, and Brescia areas), he frequently clashed with the Venetian forces commanded by Renzo di Ceri: sometimes victorious, more often defeated. He died in 1515. Matteo Bandello dedicated a novella to him.

Paolo Savelli (son of Mariano)

+1515. Son of Mariano, brother of Troilo and Jacopo. Married a daughter of Antonello Savelli.

Paolo fought in 1479 for Florence, then with his father at Cesena in 1494, and subsequently for Florence again against Pisa in 1498 and 1505. In 1512 he supported Luca Savelli in the futile defense of Prato, assaulted by the Spanish forces of Viceroy of Naples Raimondo di Cardona. A portrait of him is held in the Palazzo Ducale of Urbania. There are no citations from contemporary historians or annalists concerning him.

Jacopo Savelli (Lord of Palombara Sabina)

+c. 1525. Son of Mariano, brother of Troilo and Paolo. Father of Giovambattista. Lord of Palombara Sabina, Montorio Romano, Poggio Nativo, Rocca Priora, and Castel Gandolfo.

“Who, following in the footsteps of his ancestors and most illustrious predecessors, came to such excellence that, having been made captain of a large portion of our men-at-arms (of Florence), he acquired no less profit than glory for himself” (Varchi). Along the same lines is the judgment of Litta: “Following in the footsteps of his ancestors he came to great excellence in arms.” He fought for the Colonna, then in the service of Florence; his participation is recorded in numerous conflicts in Lazio, Umbria, and Tuscany. In 1498 he was engaged in the defense of Palombara Sabina, assaulted by the Orsini; he was then involved in various campaigns conducted by the Florentines against Pisa. In 1500 he operated in Umbria against Spoleto and sacked Cesi. After alternating vicissitudes with the Holy See (Pope Alexander VI), in 1503 he came to terms with the papacy and once again confronted the Orsini. Still fighting for the Florentines, he was present at the Battle of Torre di San Vincenzo (August 1505), in which Bartolomeo d’Alviano was defeated; d’Alviano had moved to support Piero dei Medici, who desired to restore his family’s lordship over the city. In 1518 he was appointed Marshal of the Conclave and in that capacity witnessed the election of Popes Adrian VI and Clement VII. He died around 1525.

Troilo Savelli

Lord of Palombara Sabina, Castel Gandolfo, Cantalupo in Sabina, Montasola, and Poggio Moiano.

Troilo is the most celebrated and long-lived condottiere of the generation immediately following that of Antonello. Son of Mariano, nephew of Antonello, cousin of Troiano and Silvio, his military career extended over nearly forty years: from the defense of Palombara Sabina (in the service of the Papal State) assaulted by the Aragonese in 1482, to 1517, the date of his last campaign in the Marche, again in papal service. He fought for France, for Foligno and the Oddi against the Baglioni of Perugia, for Spain, for Venice, for the Church, and for the Florentines. In 1495 he was captured at Perugia during a night attack on the city; he remained a prisoner of the Baglioni for weeks before being exchanged for a member of the da Varano family; Giampaolo Baglioni seized his horse and Troilo was obliged to offer 300 ducats to recover it. In 1510 he traveled in person to Venice, was received by Doge Leonardo Loredan in the Collegio dei Pregadi, and obtained a commission for 100 men-at-arms. He fought in the Veneto in numerous engagements against the French; he distinguished himself at Concordia and at Mirandola. He was dismissed in 1511 for various reasons, ranging from indiscipline (his constant disagreements with the Venetian commander-general Giampaolo Baglioni), to avarice (he failed to pay the members of his company as required), and to the damage caused to lodgings by his men-at-arms in a Paduan quarter. It is worth noting that, at the moment of settling his pay, he signed a letter in which he undertook to reimburse such damages in installments over four years, the guarantee secured by a mortgage on all his possessions. He returned to the papal payroll: in 1512 he took part in the Battle of Ravenna; the following year he confronted the Venetians under the orders of Prospero Colonna. It was the occasion to vent all his resentment against those who had humiliated him: he sacked the territory of Piove di Sacco, burning every building that came into his power, from inns to hospitals. In his final campaign in the Marche (1517) against Francesco Maria della Rovere he distinguished himself in the defense of Fano and at the Battle of Mombaroccio; he was, however, surprised at night by the adversaries at Serra di Sant’Abbondio, where he suffered heavy losses. Taken ill, he returned to Rome. He died in December following an attack of gout. He had the Savelli castle of Palombara Sabina restored and frescoed.

Giovambattista Savelli

December 1505–July 1551. Son of Jacopo, nephew of Troilo, Giovambattista Savelli was the father-in-law of Paolo Vitelli. Married Costanza Bentivoglio and Vittoria Savelli.

Of his numerous sons, three likewise took up the profession of arms, while his daughter Battistina married the Lord of Forlimpopoli, Brunoro II Zampeschi. Two encomia stand out among those offered by contemporary historians. “A captain of our times, for there was in this man a warlike vigor of spirit, through which, emerging full of glory and with illustrious fame for virtue no less than valor, he shone most brightly above all others” (Sansovino). “He showed, together with all his captains and soldiers, such modesty and such a civil manner of living as one could not, I will not say hope for, but desire from the most modest, most civil, and most pious men in the world” (Varchi). This last encomium, from the Florentine historian, is all the more remarkable in light of the episode of September 1529, in which Savelli was approached by the Florentines to defend the republic against the combined assault of papacy and Empire: he was even given money to put his company in order. Savelli chose instead to fight for Pope Clement VII against Florence itself. He was declared a rebel by the republic; in Florence he was painted hanging by one foot in the Palazzo della Condotta. A student of classical letters, educated by the humanists Lorenzo Pabilio and Bernardino Martiniano, he was at the same time a leading man of arms. He learned his first principles of military art from his father, following him at the age of twelve (1517) in the campaign against Francesco Maria della Rovere. He distinguished himself in fighting the Landsknechte in 1527 during the Sack of Rome, opposing the enemy first at Porta Settimiana and then at Ponte Sisto. On behalf of Emperor Charles V he held the offices of Governor and Viceroy of the Abruzzi (1529); he aligned with Pope Clement VII against the Florentines and was present at the Battle of Gavinana (1530) and at the capitulation of Florence. He distinguished himself as captain general of the pontifical light cavalry in various campaigns against Perugia, Urbino, and the Schmalkaldic League in Germany (1546); he was present at the battles of Ingolstadt and Nördlingen, where he confronted the adversaries under the orders of Ottavio Farnese. For his merits he was rewarded by Emperor Charles V with the infeudation of Antrodoco and the recognition of an annual pension of 1,000 florins. In 1540 he entered Perugia with Alessandro Vitelli to suppress the revolt of the Baglioni; his final appointment came in 1550, when Duke Cosimo dei Medici named him captain general of the Florentine militia. He died in Florence in July 1551 and was buried in the church of San Lorenzo beside the Medici tombs.