The first cardinal from the family was appointed in 1206 when Giovanni Colonna di Carbognano was made Cardinal Deacon of SS.

For many years, cardinal Giovanni di San Paolo ( elevated in 1193 ) was identified as member of the Colonna family and therefore its first representative in the College of Cardinals, but modern scholars have established that this was based on the false information from the beginning of 16th century.

In 1728, the Carbognano branch ( Colonna di Sciarra ) of the Colonna family added the name Barberini to its family name when Giulio Cesare Colonna di Sciarra married Cornelia Barberini, daughter of the last male Barberini to hold the name and grand-daughter of Maffeo Barberini ( son of Taddeo Barberini ).

The main ' Colonna di Paliano ' family is represented today by Prince Marcantonio Colonna di Paliano, Prince and Duke of Paliano ( b. 1948 ), whose heir is Giovanni Andrea Colonna di Paliano ( b. 1975 ), and by Don Prospero Colonna di Paliano, Prince of Avella ( b. 1956 ), whose heir is Filippo Colonna di Paliano ( b. 1995 ).

He spent most of his brief life working for aristocratic patrons like the Colonna principe di Stigliano, and duca Marzio IV Maddaloni Carafa.

La Palice was sent at Calais as negotiator of the peace with Charles V. As the participants did not reach an agreement, he returned to Italy as military leader under Marshal Lautrec, commanding the French main line at the battle of Bicocca ( 1522 ), in which he was defeated by Colonna.

Four years later, however, the city and the castle were ravaged by Papal troops under Prospero Colonna, and subsequently a new line of walls was built.

Calvi is served by the international Calvi-Sainte-Catherine Airport, the Xavier Colonna Port, and a railway line to L ' Île-Rousse and Ponte-Leccia, where it connects with the main line Ajaccio-Bastia.

The Colonna line became extinct again on the death of Prince Enrico Barberini-Colonna and the name went to his daughter and heiress Maria and her husband Marquis Luigi Sacchetti, who received the title of Prince of Palestrina and permission to use the Barberini name.

Meanwhile, Fabrizio Colonna, having seen the other Spanish cavalry engaged, rode out between the Ronco and the Spanish trenches and charged the French line ; his target is similarly the subject of disagreement among contemporary sources, but Oman and Taylor agree that he must have attacked the portion of the French vanguard under La Palice which the latter had not sent to assist Foix in the center.

A few yards farther, on the Via Dei Bergamaschi, is the Piazza Colonna.

* 982 – Holy Roman Emperor Otto II is defeated by the Saracens in the battle of Capo Colonna, in Calabria

The Colonna family is an Italian noble family ; it was powerful in medieval and Renaissance Rome, supplying one Pope and many other Church and political leaders.

The family residence in Rome, the Palazzo Colonna, is open to the public every Saturday morning.

According to tradition, the Colonna are a branch of the Counts of Tusculum — by Peter ( 1099 – 1151 ) son of Gregory III, called Peter " de Columna " from his property, the Columna Castle, in Colonna, Alban Hills.

This he did, and by the end of 1298 Colonna, Palestrina, and other towns had been captured and razed to the ground.

Family enmity with Pope Boniface VIII led to destruction of the fortress at Palestrina and to the seizure of the Pope at Anagni by Sciarra Colonna in 1303.

), who was credited, along with the monk Francesco Colonna, with the authorship of the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili by an acrostic in the text.

* Carlo Colonna ( 1665-1739 ), created cardinal by Clement XI in 1706.

* Original 1922 Almanach de Gotha ( edited by Justice Perthes ) entry for the Colonna family, link to the original universally-recognised genealogical reference document, with details of family honours

While his condottieri took over the siege of Piombino ( which ended in 1502 ), Cesare commanded the French troops in the sieges of Naples and Capua, defended by Prospero and Fabrizio Colonna.

Fra Marino also claims to have been alerted to the existence of the Gospel of Barnabas, from an allusion in a work by Irenaeus against Paul ; in a book which had been presented to him by a lady of the Colonna family ( Marino, outside Rome, is the location of the Palazzo Colonna ).

* Prospero Colonna, ( 1452-1523 ), who fought alongside his cousin Fabrizio Colonna.

A nephew of Prospero Colonna, mentioned above.

La Palice, under the command of Marshal Aubigny, took part to the invasion of Piedmont, the capture of Villafranca against Prospero Colonna and was one of Francis ' lieutenants at the Battle of Marignano.

The French vanguard surprised the Milanese cavalry at Villafranca, capturing Prospero Colonna ; meanwhile, Francis and the main body of the French confronted the Swiss at the Battle of Marignano on 13 September.

At Villafranca the French, led by Jacques de la Palice, surprised and captured the Papal commander, Prospero Colonna, in a daring cavalry raid deep behind the allied lines ( the Chevalier Bayard providing the impetus and expertise ).

The Caetani lost Fondi after Charles VIII of France's expedition to southern Italy, and it was assigned to the condottiero Prospero Colonna.

* Prospero Colonna ( 1452 – 1523 ), Italian condottiere

The jinetes, Spanish light cavalry, were placed in front of the rest of the army, while the Spanish heavy cavalry under Prospero Colonna were kept in reserve.

From the battle of Vicenza in 1513, down to the Battle of Bicocca on 29 April 1522, he continued to serve in command of the Spaniards and as the colleague rather than the subordinate of Prospero Colonna.

Subsequently it was a Caetani possession, and later assigned by Charles VIII of France to his general Prospero Colonna.

The Colonna family have been Prince Assistants to the Papal Throne since 1710, though their papal princely title only dates from 1854.

* Federico Colonna y Tomacelli, Prince of Butera, ( 1601-1641 ) Viceroy of Valencia, in Spain, 1640 – 1641, Viceroy of Catalonia, 1641.

* Marcantonio V Colonna, Prince of Paliano, ( 1606 / 1610-1659 )

This honour is today held by Alessandro Torlonia and Marcantonio Colonna, Prince and Duke of Paliano.

Apart from some 6, 000 Spaniards under the Duke, the army included some 14, 000 Landsknechts under Georg von Frundsberg, some Italian infantry led by Fabrizio Maramaldo, Sciarra Colonna and Luigi Gonzaga, and some cavalry under Ferdinando Gonzaga and Philibert, Prince of Orange.

He was married twice, first to an American woman and then to the British widow of Prince Colonna.

When the negotiations began, his quarrel with the king of France was temporarily in abeyance, and he had no intention of reviving it so long as there was hope that French money would come to pay the troops who, under Charles of Valois, the papal vicar of Tuscany, were so valuable in the crusade against the Colonna cardinals and their Sicilian allies.

He had already become famous for zeal and eloquence, and was the intimate friend of the Spaniard Juan de Valdés, of Pietro Bembo, Vittoria Colonna, Pietro Martire, Carnesecchi, and others destined to incur the suspicion of heresy, either from the moderation of their characters or from the evangelical tincture of their theology.

He also addressed replies to marchioness Vittoria Colonna, Claudio Tolomei, and other Italian sympathizers who were reluctant to go to the same length as himself.

Arms of the Colonna family.

This reinforced the pro-Emperor Ghibelline course that the Colonna family followed throughout the period of conflict between the Papacy and the Holy Roman Empire.

In 1297, Cardinal Jacopo ( Giacomo Colonna ) disinherited his brothers Ottone, Matteo, and Landolfo of their lands.

The latter three appealed to Pope Boniface VIII who ordered Jacopo to return the land, and furthermore hand over the family's strongholds of Colonna, Palestrina, and other towns to the Papacy.

The Colonna family ( aside from the three brothers allied with the Pope ) declared that Boniface had been elected illegally following the unprecedented abdication of Pope Celestine V three years previously.

The dispute lead to open warfare, and in September Boniface appointed Landolfo to the command of his army, to put down the revolt of Landolfo's own Colonna relatives.

In honor of this event, the Colonna family was granted the privilege of using the imperial pointed crown on top of their coat of arms.

In 1248, after having dedicated her entire life to serving God and the poor, Margherita Colonna died.

In 1314, Cardinal Egidio Colonna died at Avignon, now in France, where the Popes had withdrawn.

The celebrated poet Petrarch, was a great friend of the family, in particular of Giovanni Colonna and often lived in Rome as a guest of the family.

Vittoria Colonna became famous in the sixteenth century as a poet and a figure in literate circles.

In 1627 Anna Colonna, daughter of Filippo I Colonna, married Taddeo Barberini of the family Barberini ; nephew of Pope Urban VIII.